FIRE and ICE
by lollipopdiaries
Summary: AU Bratva Oliver Queen and Tech Genius Felicity Smoak meet because of circumstances. Felicity gets caught up in Oliver's Bratva saga and in the midst of it all they learn to trust one another and find love.
1. Chapter 1

_**Author's Note: I'm at it again, another attempt at a Bratva Oliver saga. The backstory of both our leads, Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak will unfold as the story progresses.**_

 _ **For me, Bratva Oliver is the best and I am patiently waiting for the day the Arrow TV, wishing it will be Season 5, will finally feature the long overdue Bratva. Imagine Bratva Oliver and the awesome tech genius Felicity Smoak together, explosive!**_

 _ **In the meantime, we have to make do with hopefully not so lame fics like this one.**_

 _ **For those of you who follow me on tumblr, I have posted this a few days back. But this chapter is a little bit more expanded. In fact, chapter 2 is also posted on my tumblr, but I am currently expanding that chapter before I post it here.**_

 _ **This story will be posted on Archive of Our Own (Ao3) and Fanfiction, so you have a pick on the medium to read this story from.**_

 _ **If you love the story, please drop me a line via:**_

 _ **Twitter – lollipopsays (lollipopdiaries)**_

 _ **Archive of Our Own – lollipopdiaries**_

 _ **Fan Fiction – lollipopdiaries**_

 _ **Tumblr - everythinglollipop**_

 _ **In the meantime, read on and hope that at least I made you smile while reading this slightly fluffly Bratva AU. Oh, no Green Arrow in this one, just our computer genius and the Bratva.**_

 **FIRE AND ICE**

 **Chapter 1: One on One**

"Mr. Martin, do we have anyone on the staff able to solve this concern?" Oliver all but glared at the man in front of him.

Oliver Queen had the reputation within Queen Consolidated of being a stone cold, never smiling, no nonsense CEO who fired staff, executives included without bating an eyelash when the results he was expecting didn't measure up.

Having been the sole survivor of the accident, or at least that was what was widely believed, that wiped out his entire family, mother, father and little sister included and having been raised in Russia during the last ten years of his life until he return like the prodigal Starling City son two years ago, Oliver Queen had been both the hero and villain when it came to his legacy, Queen Consolidated.

Just when QC was hitting rock bottom after years of struggling left without it's heart and soul Robert Queen, Oliver Queen now all of twenty eight years of age and swooped in and turned QC around in less than a year. Of course that meant cleaning house including firing almost everyone in the organization and revamping almost the entire culture of QC.

Mr. Lawrence Martin remained as one of the holdovers of QC largely because he had the same ties as Oliver had, the Brava. An all-powerful organization that equaled if not surpassed the reach of other similar mafia secret societies, instrumental in toppling down economies and replacing them with more amiable ones.

But even Oliver had reached the end of his straw as far as Mr. Martin was concerned.

Once again, an unknown enemy had breeched the security of Queen Consolidated shutting down the company for almost the whole day already.

Mr. Martin looked at the man thirty years his junior and swallowed before he answered, "we have the one. Hired by QC less than a year ago."

Oliver looked the man dead in the eye, "then get the man on it. You very well know there is more at stake here than just QC and it's confidential data."

Mr. Martin nodded then cleared his throat, "the he is actually a she, Felicity Smoak to be exact. And she has been working on this nonstop since the wee hours of the morning."

Oliver gave nothing away, definitely not the shock he momentarily felt at Mr. Martin's mention that a woman was their one and only savior. A newbie at that since the older man did mention she was a new hire. Oliver lived in a world that still had women pretty much in the backseat, especially as far as the Bratva is concerned.

This was new, even for him. A woman, a young one at that, being front and center.

Instead Oliver again looked at the older man dead on, "I need an update immediately." Then he turned around and all but dismissed the older man who audibly sighed in relief at being dismissed making a beeline for the door of the executive office barely nodding at the only other man in the room instead concentrated in wiping his sweaty brow with his expensive white handkerchief.

As the old man exited the door Oliver turned to John Diggle, his most trusted right hand man.

Because they thought and moved in sync, John knew what that look was all about as he moved toward Oliver extending a mini-IPad to him. John had accessed QC's soft files which he had full access to the moment Mr. Martin mention the woman's name.

"Felicity Meghan Smoak, twenty three. Graduated with top honors at MIT a year ago. Double major in Information Technology and Cyber Security. She was on every respectable company's shopping list but she ended up here. Currently holds the position of IT Specialist reporting to a Supervisor three layers below Mr. Martin. QC's hope is rested on the shoulders of the IT Department's most junior specialist." John finished summarizing what Oliver was reading at the same time of John's tablet.

Oliver leaned back on his chair and contemplated before he answered, "maybe it's time we pay Ms. Smoak a visit ourselves. It's only right given the magnitude of what she is tasked to do."

John nodded preparing to move, "my curiosity has definitely been peeked. And you and me both it's takes a lot for me to be peeked."

The ghost of a smile was seen in Oliver's face. The man never smiled but on rare occasions. When there was only John around, he allowed himself to relax a bit around his only friend. Even at half-ass jokes like that.

She knew she was violating her own rule. No liquids anywhere near the vicinity of her babies.

But this was crisis time.

Catastrophic circumstances.

And she needed her double dose of dark roast coffee to get her blood pumping, not that her adrenaline wasn't enough for her to power on.

This was the first real challenge Felicity had since joining QC, not that upgrading the cyber defenses of QC wasn't a challenge.

But truly, this was the first time she had broken a sweat. Someone, probably as smart as she was, was breaking into QC's supposedly impregnable firewalls. The same one she had designed and re-engineered.

This one was personal.

The moment she had gotten the wake up call at four in the morning from the night shift crew she had run like a mad woman to the QC headquarters. Well, not literally run. She gave herself time to change to something respectable. No time for her to perfectly coif herself, but her four-inch heels, curve hugging bright orange dress and fuchsia lipstick was going to give the deadbeat drunks on the street if they saw her, a heart attack.

Lucky for them, and for her, the streets where almost empty as she arrived at the QC headquarters.

Right now, she was one her fifth cup of her coffee. The other IT staff had been more than willing to do her bidding. Brew her coffee, get her snacks, hell she was sure she could ask them for anything at the moment and they would do it. And that was just the supervisors and managers in her department, all very senior to her very junior stature.

But they knew they where all no match for Felicity Smoak. That fact had been established from her first day in the office when everyone had first tried to argue with her and her ideas and programs but in the end she had shut down all naysayers.

She was the best of the best. She was recruited, bided on and offered a package unparalleled within QC for her services, services that had proved so valuable during the last few months when QC was once again on the rise from the ashes.

She had come a few months after Oliver Queen had taken the reigns of QC, part of the new wave of the next generation of employees.

Mr. Martin had made one of his numerous appearances at her side just now. Without even breaking stride Felicity knew it was he because he carried the unique mixed scent of cigarettes and old spice, yeah men still used old spice.

Before Mr. Martin could even ask for a status report she pre-empted him, "Mr. Martin, I have nothing else to add to what I told you thirty minutes ago. I am still backtracking the breech and locating the source at the moment. I will update you as soon as," a ping interrupted her mid speech that had her sliding her chair toward another screen and typing away at another keyboard.

"I got you now!" She said more to herself than to anyone within hearing distance since about then all her colleagues where now gathered around her trying to make sense of what she was doing.

Someone tried to ask her a question but Felicity quickly raised a hand and made a zipping gesture to silence whomever that was without even turning around.

She failed to notice that the colleagues who a few seconds ago where crowding around her had all but left her side, even Mr. Martin had taken a few steps back as she continued with her not so inner monologue.

"Ohhh, you think you're smarter than me. Well, I've got news for you whoever you are. Although you're probably a fat, middle aged man still living with your grandma in her basement. I got you now," Felicity said again as she typed away with attitude.

The man who was perfectly positioned behind her watch her with hidden fascination. This was something he was no expert on and he was an expert on a lot of things.

At the corner of his eye, he registered the dark skinned man by his side try to suppress a smile at what they were witnessing.

All Oliver could see was a lot of numbers and symbols. He however also noted that all the other occupants of the department had eyes on him and the woman who was busily saving the company form being cyber infiltrated.

Finally after another monologue from the part of Felicity finished off with a couple of high fist pumps, she pushed back her chair with a kick and raised both arms in the air fully intent on seeking applause and recognition from her colleagues only to be confronted with the face of Oliver Queen as she turned around.

That definitely stopped her mid twirl and left her awkwardly with her hands still raised high.

After a few seconds of pause, she hoped it was only a few seconds at least. She pulled her hands down and cleared her throat as the man before her just stared at her saying nothing.

And because she was Felicity Smoak, sassy more than classy, her mouth spurted out words that her brain had yet to process, "and once again crisis averted. Give me five."

Felicity was almost aghast as she finally registered her hand move up, awaiting the action she had demanded from the man before her.

Blue eyes locked into blue eyes, no one moving an inch, Felicity still with one hand raise when out of nowhere a palm suddenly locked with hers. Her requested high five was finally met.

But not by the man who was still in a staring contest with. Nope.

John Diggle had high fived Felicity Smoak. Even John was surprised at his action. But the woman deserved it. She was right anyway. She had single-handedly averted a QC crisis. All five foot four of her.

And while John noted Felicity had registered that she had been high fived by pulling down her hand, she nor Oliver Queen had still moved.

Interesting. John thought.

Oliver took a deliberate moment to let his gaze wonder from foot to head before they locked eyes with Felicity once again.

"My office in five minutes." Oliver finally spoke then abruptly turned to exit the room.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: First of all, a gazillion thank yous to y'all who sent me notes, comments, kudos, likes and favorites across tumblr, A03 and Fanfiction, it really is what i live for when i start a new story.**

 **For me Bratva Oliver is the best and this teamed up with our sassy tech genius Felicity is a dream team.**

 **So here goes chapter 2. This has been previously published a few days ago at my tumblr account but it has now been expanded, just a tad. This is for my A03 and FF readers.**

 **I hope i will catch you saying WTF at the end of this chapter!**

 **If that is exactly your reaction, drop me a line via any of the following:**

 **Archive of Our Own via lollipopdiaries**

 **Fanfiction via lollipopdiaries**

 **Tumblr via everythinglollipop**

 **Twitter via lollipopsays (lollipopdiaries)**

 **And for the usual disclaimer, I do not own Arrow. I just live for the verse.**

* * *

 **FIRE AND ICE**

 **Chapter 2 - Say It Isn't So**

This was not how Felicity Smoak imagined she would be first stepping foot on the Executive Floor of Queen Consolidated.

Well, the full version of how she imagined this happening was for her to be called into the plush offices of Oliver Queen, CEO and President of QC. He eager to congratulate her and salivating to tell her she had been promoted at least two ranks up. Not that Mr. Queen was known to salivate. Nope, the man had no expression at all. Stone Cold. Ice Man. That was how Oliver Queen had been described by not only the press but, more so by the people within QC.

She hoped at least a similar version to what she had envisioned would play out. She after all saved QC from a cyber disaster, all by herself.

As she stepped out of the executive elevator where she was greeted by bulky security guards, dressed in black suits. There was no doubt in Felicity's mind that Mr. Queen invested heavily in security. Everyone who at least knew a bit about security noticed the very high-tech systems in place around the building and did she mention the bulky, well-build men not so conspicuously scattered around the building?

Oliver Queen.

Felicity had never met him, personally. Hadn't really heard he was back before she joined QC. She was more focused on other things that stimulated her interests than following the saga of the Queen family. Sure, she attend the usual Corporate gatherings and events where again a stone cold Oliver Queen would give the required speeches and make the required appearance.

The man dressed impeccably, that was for sure. The women of all ages swarming around Starling City's most eligible bachelor also proved that the man was not bad to look at. More than not bad actually, he was someone you could stare at the whole day. Not that Felicity made a habit of doing that. Not even that very brief moment she was locked in a staring contest with him. Nope, he was doing the staring, she? She was doing the daring.

Despite his stature and status, Oliver Queen ignored all the society functions. He wanted to be ignored.

But Oliver Queen just couldn't be ignored. Not when he was single-handedly credited for his business acumen. Re-establishing QC as a market innovator in a short span of time. He had been touted as even greater than his father who was a great, great man having founded QC and initial brought it to the levels it flourished. But Oliver Queen was something else altogether, this considering Oliver Queen had been unheard from for almost ten years.

He listed his education as being in Russia. Home schooled for most. Under the tutelage of one of Russia's own Anatoly Knyazev.

Anatoly himself was another layer of mystery.

On paper, he was rumored to be a close adviser to the Russian President. Several Presidents that is, since Russia had quite a few revolutions and inside wars within the Kremlin. He was said to be the top man in KGB, but this was never confirmed. What was known was that he was a very powerful businessman with a lot of influence. What kind of business? Nobody quite knew.

He had traveled to the US with Oliver Queen and stayed for a month while Oliver reacclimatized, so to speak.

Felicity puffed before she directed her steps toward the Executive Office reception. It was exactly five minutes from the time Mr. Queen had demanded she see him at his office. From what she knew, Oliver Queen did not tolerate tardiness. So did she actually. On that aspect, they were the same.

"Hi, I'm Felicity. Felicty Smoak. Mr Queen…"

The receptionist, a middle aged woman cut her mid-speech and gave her a tempered smile, "Mr. Queen is expecting you dear."

Felicity was a little surprised. She expected haughty, completely tailored women to occupy the Executive Floor who really had more beauty than brains. Such was the picture she painted.

But looking around the Executive Office, she spied none.

Sure they were women working. But they were much more clones of the middle-aged receptionist. Which again was a surprise.

Finally out of her pondering, Felicity gave the woman a smile back and nodded pointing to a general direction.

"Just straight ahead dear. Ms. Armstong, Mr. Queen's personal assistant will meet you in the corridor."

Felicity did as instructed and true enough another slightly older middle-aged woman was walking toward her with a smile.

"Ms. Smoak I presume?"

At Felicity's nod, the woman continued. "Mr. Queen is expecting you." She waved her hand forward, a gesture for Felicity to precede her. Then after a subtle knock, she opened what was Oliver Queen's office door and announced Felicity without stepping inside.

Felicity tentative stepped inside the door. She heard the sound a door closing behind her as she took the room in.

Plush, old rich dark wood furniture occupied the room.

She glanced to her right and there he was again, the dark-skinned shadow of Oliver Queen. There have been office jokes about how closed these two men were because yeah, the two men were inseparable. Never mind that the other man John Diggle she now recalled, was married. Yeah, the office grapevine knew that as a fact too.

"Ms. Smoak, please sit down." Oliver all but commanded in an unemotional voice.

Felicity not really one to follow demands found herself walking toward the rather intimidating visitor chair he motioned to, taking care to sit down with more than primly fashion with her hands folded on top of her thighs.

Instead of sitting down himself in his usual expensive CEO chair, Oliver Queen moved around his grand executive table and sat down on the other chair facing her. She felt more than heard John Diggle move forward, now repositioned behind her although at a safe distance.

Oliver Queen took quite a number of seconds to again give her a calculated sweep before he locked eyes with her.

"Are our servers secured?"

"As tight as Fort Knox. You know that military base down…"

"I know what and where Fort Knox is Ms. Smoak. With that comparison, I assume you have upgraded our cyber security?"

"Yes, although I had to write new codes and protocols including setting up alarms on my phone," she lifted her phone as she said it, "and I can do the same on your phone, on Mr. Martin's phone, or anyone's phone who needs to be alerted. It's quite a complicated program, not yet in the market but something I have been working on, not on Queen Consolidated time. "

Oliver raised a brow at her babbling, "you used an untested program for the company?"

Felicity's upper torso stiffened, offended that someone, never mind he was her boss and the owner of the company had questioned her and her abilities. "I used a program that no one else knows exists yet. Therefore it would be improbable that anyone would be able to break-into our firewalls and our systems, at least not anytime soon. I will just have to regularly rewrite the program more to make sure technological advancements are applied to the program. So to answer your question, yes I did." Felicity lifted a brow way up high and folder her arms as if she was expecting further argument from him.

Once again Oliver just stared at her for quite sometime before he grunted, as if in agreement then totally changed gears, "do you like working in QC so far? I understand that you had a wealth of choices for your services but you chose to join us. "

Not really expecting that to be the topic of conversation, Felicity shifted on her chair a few times before she answered.

"At that time QC was on the rise. I liked the potential it exuded and wanted to be a part of that rather than more established corporations were I could be lost in the shuffle."

Oliver nodded and frowned at the same time, "but do you like working in QC? You didn't answer the question."

Felicity tilted her head to one side as if in thought before she answered him, "I like that my being here makes a difference, that I have the support of my superior's superior as far as improvements and innovations in relation to QC's cyber security. I like that what I have done has impacted QC in a major way. That I am important, that my skills are valued."

"And the people in your team?"

Felicity scoffed, she couldn't help herself. "Honestly, I don't know why you hired them. Most of them can't tell the difference between one malware virus and another such that it is almost impossible for them to quickly find a solution to prevent corrupting the system or even destroying our data." Realizing she had probably labeled everyone on her department as incompetent, she tried to backtrack a bit, "some of them are quick studies and are very adaptable." Felicity in her mind related adaptability to her being able to boss around her other co-workers into running little errands for her. They were more than willing to do her bidding as long as she did her job and theirs.

Felicity practically run the whole department and as long as she was doing the job well, everyone in her team remained in good standing. They were a team, even if Felicity pulled in most of the weight.

And again Oliver abruptly changed his line of questioning with his next one, "tell me about yourself. Your family life, boyfriend?" Oliver glanced at her finger to probably check on a ring before he continued, "hobbies. What you do on your free time?"

"Why?" Felicity answered him quickly without thinking. She was always defensive when it came to more personal questions.

"Your personnel information was lacking in that aspect." Oliver gestured toward the folder containing her HR file on top of his table before he continued. "Now that it has come to my attention, I want that remedied."

"And I ask again, why. Why do you need to know about these things? Most of them none of your concern."

Oliver leaned back on his chair, visibly intrigued by this woman who was obstinate and recalcitrant, completely unafraid of him.

"Humor me."

"I don't see the point in humoring you."

Oliver finally leaned forward, his arms on his knees as he looked at her, "maybe my point is, after the display I have seen earlier. I am seriously evaluating your current position within QC."

Felicity stood up, her face red. Affronted at what he just said. "You're firing me! You…you," Felicity couldn't continue. All she could do was point an accusing, shaky finger at him.

Oliver looked beyond the spitfire before him to see John Diggle again trying to mask a smile before he gave his full attention back to the hellfire hoping that he wouldn't regret what he was going to do next.

"Calm down Ms. Smoak. Sit back down. I'm not firing you."

Felicity gave him a 'the fuck' look but obliged him.

Oliver took a few seconds again just blankly staring at her before he spoke. "you underestimate your value Ms. Smoak. Even I would be insane to remove you from QC knowing what you bring to the fold. No Ms Smoak, I am definitely not firing you. In fact, I am promoting you."

* * *

What just happened? Felicity asked herself that question for probably the twentieth time during the last five minutes, still trying to gather her wit because the picture that was currently painted given her state wasn't really encouraging.

Where was she?

Why was she naked?

And whose arm was currently wrapped around her waist locking her in place? Her back to his front.

When Felicity finally found the courage to turn around she was frozen, her eyes popped as she realized who was in bed with her.

Oliver Queen.


	3. Chapter 3

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE: The response for this story has been overwhelming and I've been more than encouraged to continue with this story. Unfortunately i have this thing called work getting in the way so I will try to commit to update this story every week until it's complete. Right now, I'm looking at updating this during the weekend.**_

 _ **In the meantime, please feel free to drop me a message or a note via any of the following:**_

 _ **Archive of our Own via lollipopdiaries**_

 _ **Fanfiction via lollipopdiaries**_

 _ **Tumblr via everythinglollipop**_

 _ **Twitter via lollipopsays (lollipopdiairies)**_

 _ **Hope you like this chapter...**_

* * *

 **FIRE AND ICE**

 **Chapter 3 – Some things Are Better Left Unsaid**

 _What just happened? Felicity asked herself that question for probably the twentieth time during the last five minutes, still trying to gather her wit because the picture that was currently painted given her state wasn't really encouraging._

 _Where was she?_

 _Why was she naked?_

 _And whose arm was currently wrapped around her waist locking her in place? Her back to his front._

 _When Felicity finally found the courage to turn around she was frozen, her eyes popped as she realized who was in bed with her. Oliver Queen._

* * *

 _Five days earlier….._

 _Day 1._

Great, Felicity thought as she finally reached her desk back at the IT Department.

Oliver Queen just promoted her as Assistant Manager for the Cyber Security Department. Yeah he actually created a whole new department for her apparently.

Oh to be CEO and President of a multi-billion company and to have to power make swift decisions like that on a whim. Sure, he did say this has to be formally confirmed by the Board of Directors of QC but he also stressed that it was just a formality, the confirmation by the Board. He was after all majority owner of the Corporation.

Apparently as Assistant Manager of Cyber Security, aside from securing QC's systems, her task included Oliver Queen's other personal interests and assets including securing the Queen Mansion. After all, Oliver Queen was the only surviving member of the Queen family so all assets went to him upon the death of his parents. He was a billionaire many times over. The most eligible bachelor not only within Starling City but one of the most sought after in the US.

Felicity at first thought he was joking when he had mentioned he needed top-notch security at the Mansion. She started to crack another of her one-liners but something stopped her, his stone cold expression.

It wasn't very clear to her however why he needed it in his home. Felicity really didn't dwell on that part much.

She was much more concerned with the other part that had just happened.

Assistant Manager Felicity Meghan Smoak. The papers would be official on Monday since today was a Friday. He even told her she would have her own office and a couple of staff.

It hardly registered with her that he said she was to be relocated to the Executive floor, just two doors down from his office.

Nope.

Felicity Smoak was still in cloud nine over had just happened.

She wanted to share the information with her IT co-workers but thought the better of it. Let them find out like the rest of the other QC employees on Monday.

Felicity wanted to celebrate tonight but Oliver said she was needed at the Queen Mansion bright and early tomorrow. He said that he would personally give her the grand tour of the Mansion.

* * *

Day 2. Saturday had proved to be more confusing for Felicity.

As promised, a car had been waiting for her at seven o'clock in the morning, a black SUV that screamed elegance and was very much out of place in her neighborhood.

Sure, her actual apartment was in one of the nicer buildings. Old red brick corner building that didn't have an elevator. But she loved it. Even if she had to walk five floors via the stairway which wasn't exactly well-lighted.

But the view of her top floor apartment more than made up for the other comforts of living in a better neighborhood.

It worked for her when she was working on her computers, facing the night sky. Milking the view for all its worth as she got lost in as she coded the night away, designing her own cyber programs.

Because yeah, she dreamed that one day, before her 28th birthday, she would finally open the door to her very own office. She was still deciding what to call it, Smoak Securities. Smoak Solutions. Cyber Smoak.

While she loved QC, the place was just a stepping stone for her. A chance for her to further develop her craft in the real world in a corporate environment.

At the moment, she was barely surviving. No matter how high her entry level pay was. It was still just enough to cover her rent, food and electricity. A large part of her pay actually went to her investments in her equipment. She needed top-notch computers and gadgets to keep up with plans and she wasn't going to settle for low grade stuff. Most of the equipment she had, she had assembled herself. It was a testament to how good she really was.

So that promotion really meant a lot to Felicity even if she tried to sound not so eager when Oliver Queen finally got to the part of her promotion.

Working on a Saturday, a very early Saturday morning was a small price to pay. She had literally one foot in the door with Oliver Queen. Gaining his trust and confidence was no small task. That she was very much aware of.

The man was hardcore when it came to selecting his inner circle.

Felicity took this invite to the Mansion as a kind of test. Her ability put her within speed dial reach of the man. Now, all she needed to do was prove to him that he didn't make the wrong decision as far as she was concerned.

Rather than wear her usual weekend attire consisting of jeans and a tee. She opted for a dressed down version of her office wardrobe, a bright pink summer dress and purple heels.

Felicity Smoak was a sharp dresser. She dressed to compliment her sense of style but ended up standing out. She didn't care. This was who she was.

She was awestruck when they finally entered the Mansion gates, planting one of her palms on the glass window to get a better view.

John Diggle was seated in the front seat beside the driver. He had been quietly observing the back seat passenger during the entire forty-minute ride.

He would have to talk to Oliver about her apartment location.

Even he knew it wasn't the safest place to be living. Not for a twenty three year old pretty young and unattached woman, definitely not someone who would be deeply involved in the plans of Oliver Queen.

* * *

She had just finished briefing her not one but two assistants who she had plucked from her old IT Department, the most promising of the junior associates.

Both had been more than willing to go with her knowing that she was riding the fastrack lane to a full manager position under a year if Oliver Queen himself continued to show interest in her abilities.

There had been the requisite whispers circulating around the office about Felicity Smoak. A tidbit that was brought to her attention by her loyal assistants, a screaming twenty five year old gay man and a nerdy twenty three year old fresh out of college woman just like Felicity who had worshiped the ground she had walked on since her first day at QC.

At first she was shocked then angry. She was already playing out several scenarios in her mind how to extract revenge, not necessarily the legal way. She was after all an expert hacker, a fact that was unknown inside the corporate boardroom of QC where everything was supposed to be above board.

But after a few minutes she just pursed her lips and gave her two loyal assistants a loaded smile confusing them further when she sent her gay assistant out to purchase starbucks for the three of them.

Yeah, that was to become her way of rewarding her 'staff' from then on. It work for them and it worked for her.

In the meantime, all the bitches and hoes with loose tongues wouldn't know what hit them when she finally extracted her revenge on them.

Being single, unattached and considered more than an average beauty led to people speculating that Oliver Queen's attraction to her wasn't much related to her skills with the computer but in her other skills.

Felicity was counting down the days to when her plot of vengeance would reveal itself. Just wait. Hell hath no fury like a woman wronged.

It was now Tuesday.

Felicity had signed and sealed her new contract right under the raised eyebrow of a human resource supervisor who was part of the majority of QC employees still questioning her ascent to the Executive Floor. Never in the history of QC had Robert Queen created a department on a whim that was not first discussed with and cleared with the Board.

But of course everyone knew Oliver Queen and his management style was the exact opposite of his father. He didn't really care what everyone else thought. Within six months of him assuming the helm of QC, the board had also learned to take a back seat. QC after all was doing better, greater than the last ten years. It's advancements, leaps and bounds.

Felicity twirled around in her new executive chair in her very own office at the Executive Floor of QC. Truth, her goofing around helped her think. And she really needed a certain mindset for her current job assignment.

Knowing that she was all alone in her office, even if her office was all glass, she did two full twirls on her seat. A skill she had perfected since yesterday.

On her first twirl around she could see her two assistants typing away. On her second full twirl she almost fell over as she placed her four-inched heels back down on the carpet for an abrupt stop because hell no, what was Oliver Queen doing in her office.

He wasn't there a second ago because she was sure it only took a full second for a twirl, she knew, she timed it.

As usual, Oliver was using his default expression, which was totally blank.

"Ms. Smoak, if you're finished testing out your chair, can I have a few minutes of your time?"

Felicity was flustered. She was caught playing during company time by no less the CEO. Usually, this was grave circumstance. But Felicity was sure if she were going to be fired or even reprimanded, it wouldn't be over something as juvenile was this.

Nope, Oliver Queen had walked twenty eight steps, yes she counted the steps too, from his office to hers for something specific.

Felicity pushed her glasses back up her nose more to stall then anything else and gave him her patented bright goofy smile.

"Mr. Queen, this is unexpected. You did say you needed those reports by Friday and today is only Tuesday unless I didn't get the memo. You do send memos right," Felicity slid to her work desk, typing away to open her email. "Nope, no email coming from you. Unless Ms Armstrong left a message with one of my assistants that they didn't tell me about."

"Ms. Smoak, this isn't about the reports. This is about something else."

"Something else, of course it's about something else." Felicity answered her voice almost scolding herself.

Oliver raised a brow, he was still not used to the quirkiness and uniqueness of the woman in front of him.

She tilted her head to one side and gave him another one of her goofy smiles. Oliver lost his train of thought for a second. He tried to refocus by looking away from the woman to recompose himself, what the hell was this woman doing to him. His next words came out harsher than intended only because she unbalanced him.

"Pack an overnight bag for tomorrow. I have to check on QC's Central City office, might as well have you check out the security of our offices there. I also own a Club there which we will also be checking out so bring something," Oliver deliberately let his eyes linger on her form or what he could see from his vantage since her full seated form was blocked by her work desk. "appropriate for a night out. John and I will pick you up at seven in the morning."

With that, Oliver left her office abruptly without even waiting for a response.

Maybe because he didn't really need one.

Felicity for her part was a little shocked at what he had just said.

Did he just say pack a bag, as in overnight?

Sure, it was for official business. But weren't business trips cleared with human resources or something like that.

That was the reason why during the last two days, speculation about her and her relationship with the CEO was the number one gossip topic within QC.

If anyone saw her and Oliver Queen on a road trip together with only John Diggle for company, the wagging tongues would immediately shift from hashtag Quigle, yeah she thought about that one herself, Queen and Diggle, to hashtag…Olifel? Quoak? Olicity? She had to work on that one.

Well, this was going to prove interesting.

* * *

The Club, aptly called The Spot, because it was apparently the spot to be in Central City was in fact an adventure.

It was darkly lit, elegantly of course. The décor was opulent. It definitely screamed class, the clientele, well, a list of VIPs of Central City and their friends.

It was a place for the upper crust of Central City to unwind.

There was the requisite dance floor, where a lot of A-listers were bumping bodies at the moment. The Club also had backrooms, because people actually did business here.

Oliver and her had made quite an entrance. And when she said quite an entrance, she literally meant almost everyone had stopped and taken pause when Oliver Queen had first alighted the SUV but when her leg was first exposed, as in her leg touched the pavement and Oliver Queen had bent over ever so slightly to help her out of the SUV she could literally hear the collective gasp outside the Club.

Some tried to take pictures, private citizens. Thank God their was no paparazzi around. Oliver had just pressed his hand further into her back, probably to egg her forward and she had no more time to think about anything else but match his long strides with fast short ones.

He had spent about thirty minutes showing her the security room and patiently waiting as she checked, double checked and triple checked the security of the Club. Upgrading a program or two then finally declared that she was done.

While she was working on the computers, Oliver had gotten himself a tumbler of scotch as he gazed at her, intensely.

Felicity could feel his eyes burning on her very bare back. She could recall the exact moment he saw her walk out of her room and had first seen her outfit for tonight. He not so subtly let his eyes wander from head to foot then back, locking eyes with her for quite a few intense seconds.

At some point, Felicity had gone exploring together with two security men from the Club, as encouraged by Oliver. It was obvious that they meaning the people who worked at the Club knew she had come with Oliver Queen. They were all sneaking glances at her. Even some of the clientele where doing the same. But Felicity didn't care, she was in full explore mode. She was now on her way back to one of the VIP rooms that Oliver was currently occupying.

Upon seeing her, one of the bouncers position at the door of the room gave her a noticeable nod of deference while the other men with him currently outside the room gave her several once overs.

She hesitated for a few seconds, not really sure if she should be interrupting what was happening inside, she assumed it was a QC related business meeting, but having really nothing else to do and nowhere else to go, she decided that since Oliver Queen brought her here, it was fine for her to wander inside the room.

With a nod to the bouncer which the bouncer took as a sign that he should open the door, he stepped aside to let her in. Truth, this was actually the first time Oliver Queen had brought a woman to the Club. Hell it was the first time he was seen with a woman by his side.

The man was a mystery even to his employees.

As Felicity stepped inside the room, the conversation halted.

All eyes transferred to her, making her feel a tad self-conscious.

She was wearing a body hugging black number that showed her upper assets and finished somewhere mid-thigh, her shoes where four-inch golden glittery strapped heels and her hair was curled to perfection.

All together, her look was perfect for a night out with a man of Oliver Queen's stature. That was why the man Oliver was currently conversing with had the wrong impression of whom she was.

"Ah, Oliver Queen's woman. There have been whispers about you." The man turned toward Felicity giving her his full attention, "I didn't believe it myself but now I see it with my very own eyes. After so many years, you come here parading her around the City. У вас есть один ад женщины, Queen."

The man's guttural, deeply accented voice made Felicity step back. Glancing around, Felicity had the distinct notion that she had walked into something that was totally unrelated to QC.

The way the man spoke. The other men he was with all suspiciously looked foreign. The last part of his statement was definitely not English. It sounded Russian or at least European.

And what was the man talking about when he said she was Oliver Queen's woman. Hell No! She was nobody's woman.

But then, the man just voiced out what most of the people she encountered today were thinking. That she was probably Queen's woman or whore. Wow, did she just call herself a whore?

That last thought made her regain her composure. No one, not even a scary looking dude who looked like he could eat her for breakfast would intimidate her. She was about to step forward when she heard Oliver utter.

"Эта встреча закончилась . Я хочу, чтобы ты из этого города сегодня вечером . И держаться подальше от женщины!"

Oh My God! Oliver spoke russian, because it was indeed russian. Why didn't she know that. Of course he would have, he spent ten years in the country. Oh dear, he sounded so sexy. She shouldn't be focused on that now. Her attention should be on other things, like what the hell was going on.

The fact that she didn't understand a word of what he said made all of this scary. Because Oliver Queen just sounded like he threatened the man.

What was even scarier was the man's reaction to Oliver's statement.

He laughed, a hearty, full laugh, a laugh that could be interpreted as spitting on the face of Oliver.

Oh Boy, all this was happening in front of her. Wait, all this pissing was happening because of her. Because she burst into what she now realized was meeting she had no business barging into. Hindsight, she realized that Oliver had specifically told her to look around his Club which she should have interpreted as don't go looking for me, I'll find you when I'm done talking to the Neanderthal I have a private meeting with.

Damn. She so needed to be versed in Oliver speak.

In reaction to the laugh Felicity saw Oliver's face turn red, his expression murderous. It was all starting to become real to her now. Sure, she had become used to stone face Oliver in the span of five days, but this was a new side, a dimension that made the hair in the back of her neck stand up.

Without first noticing it, John Diggle was now at her side, ready to probably do whatever Oliver Queen bided him to do. Which most probably was, get her the hell as far away from here. That much she knew about Oliver, he had that almost protective instinct when it came to her. It wasn't really that obvious but Felicity understood subtle.

Then mister Neanderthal raised up his hands although he was still smiling as if to goad Oliver further, "I will leave you be. I've said all I need to anyway."

The Russian Neanderthal and his army of bodyguards turned away from Oliver and the confrontation and were walking toward the door. Right where Felicity was currently frozen.

In a very deliberate action, the Russian stepped into Felicity's personal space and ewwww, he actually leaned forward and smelled her, actually put his nose within touching distance of her hair.

Then he stepped back just before Oliver reached her side, Oliver's face at that point was even stonier than before.

Just before the Russian stepped outside the door he dared to turn to Oliver and smirked, "it's not like you to show your cards Mr. Queen. But this is undeniable. Женщина , она имеет ценность для вас."

Oliver grabbed her elbow roughly pushing her forward almost making her stumble. It was John's gentle warning to Oliver that made him pause for a moment before he reposition his hand on her back, almost circling her waist as he guided her to a back exit of the Club.

They were in the black SUV. They'd been driving for about ten minutes to where Felicity didn't know. She didn't care. Her full attention was on Oliver who had been clenching and unclenching his fists for the last ten minutes, occasionally grunting but never looking her way.

Instead, he looked outside the window or straight ahead. It was obvious he was fighting some inner demons, fighting for control.

Felicity being Felicity just couldn't stand the silence on top of the very obvious tension in him felt the need to say something if only to ease the tension, "I'm sorry. It's my fault."

Oliver lifted a finger without looking at her, as if to stop her from further talking. It took quite a few seconds, a full minute maybe before he responded, "this is not your fault. This is not on you. This is on me. I never should have brought you with me here." He turned to Felicity as he said that last part, his eyes piercing into hers.

"Who was that man?" Felicity asked bravely despite his closed expression.

"Not your concern. The less you know, the better. I shouldn't have brought you. It would have been simpler for everyone."

"Is this about QC? Is your life in danger? Was he threating you? I didn't know we had QC dealings in Russia. He was Russian, the man in the room, wasn't he? He was scary. He scared the bejesus out of me." Felicity shivered for effect.

"Felicity, forget about the other duties we discussed. You don't need to be involved with anything else but QC. No more extra hours securing the Mansion or my other assets. From here on in, you have zero to do with anything that is outside of QC."

"What?" Felicity answered in a high pitch voice, confused by the conversation. Oliver was backtracking on everything except her involvement in QC all because of that Neanderthal!

She was about to start to argue when bam!

Something hit the SUV from the back pushing it forward then bam!

Another huge jolt, this time the SUV was hit from the front.

It all happened in a span of a few seconds.

Oliver first checked on Felicity who was knocked unconscious. The driver was bloodied, probably dead since he was pinned in by the steering wheel.

Oliver then reached out to John, saying his name softly since Oliver was getting dizzy and was about to pass out.

Just before the darkness won over him, Oliver heard more than saw the door on his side yanked open.

Translations:

Эта встреча закончилась . Я хочу, чтобы ты из этого города сегодня вечером . И держаться подальше от женщины . - This meeting is over. I want you out of this City tonight. And stay away from the Woman.

У вас есть один ад женщины. - You have one hell of a woman

Женщина , она имеет ценность для вас - The woman, she has value to you

I know, I've read every single one of the comments after I posted chapter 2 and I know all of you are looking forward to me addressing the last scene I wrote. Yeah, that one. Well...that didn't happen in this chapter. Please, bare with me. I promise, this is chapter was necessary because this one was loaded with plots devices that will be key for future chapters including addressing that last scene.

The circumstances leading to that were slightly, every so slightly revealed in this chapter. Can anyone guess what the connection is?

I promise, that last scene will fully play out in the next chapter so we all just have to wait patiently for the next update.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Notes: Here is it, Chapter 4. The one that contains the conclusion to the Chapter 2 cliffy.**

 **I had fun writing this chapter. Was smiling and giggling as I imagined the scenes play-out in my mind. Maybe I even gave a few people at the Starbucks I was when I was writing this a feeling a was a bit cray-cray because i was by myself experiencing all these emos.**

 **I hope you get the same feeling a did and find yourself smiling unconsciously. I hope you read this in a public place and be embarrassed by your reactions, kidding!**

 **If you LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this chapter. Please leave me a note because I love reactions in any of the following:**

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 **In the meantime enjoy!**

* * *

 **FIRE AND ICE**

 **Chapter 4 – Everything Your Heart Desires**

The sensation of being pulled roughly was what made Oliver suddenly alert. He still had his eyes closed and consciously maintained a sleep like breathing pattern. He was still trying to recall why he was lying down on the pavement and why his body slightly aching, although he knew something went terribly wrong for that to happen. Then it hit him in a series of waves.

Car crash. Not accidental.

Boxed in.

John.

Felicity. Felicity! No! Where was she!

Without trying to attract attention because he could clearly still hear men with guttural accents, several, he opened is eyes to scope the surroundings.

John, John was being pulled out. Roughly.

John was now thrown on the ground, almost beside him. The dark skinned man grunted. Good. Oliver thought John was alive and slightly lucid. He needed to attract John's attention without alerting the others.

He tried to tilt his head slightly just to check on Felicity.

His breath caught. Three men were pulling Felicity out of the car by her legs. No, they were half pulling half molesting her legs. He couldn't hear any reaction from Felicity so she must still be unconscious recalling his last memory.

His fists tightened. Not Felicity. This wasn't going to happen.

Dmitri. This was all Dmitri Karpov.

He had his men try to finish them off, the disagreement earlier in the Club between Oliver and Dmitri playing out in his head.

This was even before Felicity had stepped into the room and everything escalated.

Dmitri wanted to bring more drugs into the cities within Oliver's scope. Central-Coast-Starling. Increase Bratva dominance. He also demanded a larger cut for his effort.

Oliver disagreed. As Bratva Captain, he had the final say and only the Bratva hierarchy in Russia could overturn his decision.

Drugs were always a personal issue for him. Bratva had several business interests among them alcohol, women, construction, corrupt businessmen and politicians. The Bratva established a foothold on a lot of industries.

But they had been very careful, the ventures hidden behind several layers of dummy operations or behind corrupt officials.

Drugs had been one of the best operations of the Bratva. It was also the least of liked by Oliver of all the Bratva ventures.

Oh he went through the drug phase during his youth. He wasn't heavy into drugs, more designer drugs than anything. He was after all scion to the Queen fortune. Everyone wanted a piece of him. Everything came easy. Everyone wanted to please him, be in with him. Including giving him a steady supply of drugs. He started when he was sixteen until the day that his family was brutally murdered.

After that day, everything changed.

The man who adopted him, reared him. The man who offered him a home, Anatoly, he also taught him never to sample the merchandize., at least not in excess. It wasn't going to sit right with the organization that a Captain in grooming would be a user of the merchandise.

It wasn't as if he was going to drown himself in drugs. Nope. He had witness some of his closest friends be consumed by it and never recover from it. His own best friend Tommy Merlyn, son of his father's best friend had died of drug overdose at the age of eighteen.

Just a month before Oliver's family was obliterated.

That was why he would never do drugs again. That was why inside of him, he was always apprehensive when it came to drug dealings by the Bratva.

No. While he was the top man for the Bratva in this part of the world, the Bratva should be content with the slice of the pie they had.

It was a wise move anyway. They needed to keep under the radar of both the police and the government agencies whom in recent years, wanted to crack down on the Bratva. So far their ranks have been solid. The Bratva has not been successfully infiltrated. The brotherhood remained strong.

Dmitri Karpov has disagreed with him.

And this was his doing, a change in the leadership totem of the Bratva.

With Oliver Queen out of the picture, he could be next in line. It was a dog eat dog environment after all.

Oliver heard a faint whisper, John.

"Oliver."

"John, are you okay?" Oliver said so quietly so as not to attract attention but his eyes were still on the three men and Felicity, at least on Felicity's legs, which had the full attention of Dmitri's men. He could hear the men's excited chatter.

"I count three." John continued in a very small whisper still pretending to be out for the count.

"Three, all of them will die today." Oliver said his last statement with as much conviction he could muster in a whisper. Oh, they dared put their hands on a woman like Felicity.

Pure and innocent Felicity.

The Felicity that he himself had put in this situation by bringing her into his world.

Oliver took his eye away from his monitor of Felicity to lock eyes with his most trusted friend. After a subtle nod, they agreed on a plan of action without even speaking again.

Oliver grunted, loudly. Attracting the attention of the three men. Two of them left Felicity's side and walked toward him.

He pretended to groggily move around still lying down on his chest as the men approached.

As they neared, everything started to move fast.

Oliver reached up, now in a half seated position, and placed a solid arm around the neck of one of the men, the man who had bent down slightly to take a closer look at Oliver.

While still in a lock hold, Oliver used his free hand to land a solid punch on the man's throat. Cutting off his oxygen and rendering the man paralyzed for a few seconds. He finished the blow with a headlock putting enough pressure so that he broke the man's neck a second later.

For his part, John tripped the other man sending him to the pavement before he too broke the other man's neck.

The third one let go of Felicity's leg as soon as he heard the commotion and drew his gun, aiming alternately at Oliver and John without firing. He finally decided on Oliver for shooting practice but Oliver was faster.

A second after breaking the man's neck, he took the gun of the man still in it's holster and fired at the man aiming at him, hitting him point blank right between the eyes.

Everything became eerily quiet after that.

Both Oliver ad John walked bristly toward their now battered SUV with Oliver reaching Felicity first and John just a few feet away choosing to survey their surrounding lest they be ambushed again.

"Oliver, we have to move while he had some advantage. Dmitri's other men wouldn't be very far especially after they survey what happened here."

Oliver nodded while pulling Felicity gently from the car. She was still unconscious.

Her dress had ridden way up giving him a clear view of not only her creamy legs but her underwear too. Oliver stifled another grunt remembering what the three men were doing earlier. If he had the time, the men would be experiencing slow deaths. They deserved to be tortured.

They deserved to be severed of their hands for daring to touch something so pure. Their eyeballs deserved to be scratched out for what they had seen.

But, John was right. They needed to keep moving. Now.

Oliver lifted Felicity easily in his arms, bridal style while he was giving instructions to John.

It was good that they did leave the scene when they did because Dmitri's reinforcements had arrived. John was now with Felicity. He was carrying her in his arms as Oliver drew their fire away from Felicity.

Oliver and John had argued who would draw the fire of the men away. But in the end, they agreed. More like Oliver decided in favor of himself. This was his fault anyway bring Felicity into this.

Oliver was swimming across the body of river underneath the bridge in plain sight of the men, dodging their bullets at the same time trying to get a clearer view of the direction he was taking. It was maybe around ten in the evening, the moon was the only means of light that was guiding him.

They, John and him, had agreed to meet up at one of the safe houses of Oliver. A place that even the Bratva didn't know about. Oliver was always a man who planned ahead for contingencies.

Felicity was finally waking up. John had been a little worried at the time lapsed with Felicity still asleep. But now finally her eyes were fluttering open.

"Wha….where?" Felicity sat up abruptly clutching her head at her sudden action. "John?" Felicity finally spotted John who now kneeled beside her.

"It's okay, you're okay." John told her calmly. She was still in shock. Her eyes wide as she looked at him, but seemed not to be absorbing what he was saying.

"We were in an accident. A crash."

"We hit something. Something hit us…." Felicity murmured almost to herself still trying to piece together the events earlier.

John sat down on his hunches. He let Felicity recover, gain her bearing. All the time that she would need. Oliver was still MIA after all. They had the time. John was on a mission, a mission to keep this woman safe not only for himself but for his friend Oliver too.

This woman got to Oliver somehow. She made Oliver do things out of his usual character. Or was she just bringing out Oliver's true nature? The one he was meant to be before his world was disrupted.

"What happened? Where are we? Where…." Felicity looked around the living room, foreign to her. She had been lying down on a couch. "Where's Oliver?"

"We are at a safe house." John simply said.

Felicity looked up at John, her eyes widened. Yeah, maybe she had an over imaginative mind. But safe houses mostly involved dangerous men, like the dangerous man who Oliver was talking to earlier. A safe house meant they were hiding from someone because they needed a house that was safe.

"Oliver isn't here." At Felicity's swallow and panicked face, John immediately remedied his statement. She might have thought he meant he was dead, as dead as their driver.

"He's alive. But he isn't here, yet. He drew the men away to keep you from the line of fire."

"You mean he offered himself up as bait. Like he was invisible or something." Felicity told him calmly, understanding the situation with clarity.

Damn, John thought to himself, this woman would be perfect for Oliver is this were another life. She understood the man without even knowing that the task was almost impossible. It took John years to unravel the mystery that was Oliver. They were at a place now, both Oliver and him, where they were like brothers from a different mother because they had time, lots of it. To be able to build the trust that was necessary.

But this woman before him, bespectacled, innocent, ignorant of the darkness of the world, this woman was able to read Oliver accurately.

"Does Oliver Queen plan to make his presence felt any time tonight?"

John had to smile despite their situation, the woman continued to astound him. He was sure she had never, ever been in any life and death scenario before but the way she held up, her calm exterior, as if battle tested, it reminded him very much of another woman. A woman he eventually married because he just couldn't imagine a life without her, Lyla Michaels.

Oh Oliver chose well, even if he didn't know it yet. This woman was going to be the death of his best friend. Because John Diggle knew, what was going through the mind of Oliver. He heard part of the conversation after all inside the SUV. He was going to push away Felicity Smoak. Push her out of his life for her safety despite his initial intention to keep her in all aspects of his life. John was sure it was purely instinctual. His best friend didn't know he had finally caught the bug, the love bug., or at least the beginnings of it.

John knew his best friend enough to know that Oliver was guided by his impulse to pull the woman close. Maybe it was because she intrigued him from the beginning, a woman who held power in her fingers, literally. Uncorrupted by it. Unfazed by the men of the world. Walking to the beat of her own drum.

The door opening suddenly and forcefully brought John immediately to his feet and in front of Felicity, ready to defend her.

"John," Oliver could only managed a whisper.

John noticed Oliver search the house with his eyes, knowing exactly what or whom Oliver was searching for as John stepped away from where he stood to finally put his friend out of his misery.

Wet and shivering heavily, his clothes torn and muddy, Oliver all but ran toward Felicity in the clumsiest of ways John had every seen. He slid to his knees right in front of her will she just looked at him calmly, queenly as he approached.

Oliver instinctively held out both his hands to touch her telling himself he was just checking for injuries although his mind was telling him if there were any, John would have long before nursed them.

"I'm fine. I've probably had as much adventure as I can take for the day but I'm surprisingly okay," she said as if even she was surprised. Having said that, her next statement removed the focus on her self and back to the Oliver, "but clearly, you're not." His hands were very, very cold on her.

Oliver tried to brush it all away with the wave of his hand.

"I've been through worst." She almost wasn't able to catch what he said with his speech all slurry and his eyes glassy.

"And somehow I actually believe you. You, Oliver Queen are a total mystery. Just when I thought I had you pegged in a box, you go and surprise me. And it's clear to me I, we, are in the middle of some kind of real world war with guns and men with accents and deliberate car crashes and Russians and I'm 100% sure there is more, much more to this story. A story that I demand, yes demand, you heard me right, that you fill me in. If people are shooting at me, I'd like to know why, wouldn't you?"

At Felicity's monologue all Oliver could do was look at her with fascination despite his present state. How does she do it? Be a pillar of strength after everything she had been through. And she was right, after everything that transpired tonight. She needed to be read in. He needed to tell her, at least the basics, about the Bratva. Knowledge of the foe before them would be key if he were to keep the woman alive. He owed it to her.

But Oliver was struggling to keep conscious. For several moments, he thought he wouldn't make it to the safe house. The only thing that really kept him going was the uncertainty. The not knowing if Felicity had made it out okay. Something was giving him the strength to power on. He could see her face every time he stumbled. He could hear her voice every time his body threatened to give out due to exhaustion.

He hardly noticed that she had already switched gears. He almost jumped from his seated position when he felt her warm, very warm and gentle hands on his shivering body, did she just say what he thought she said?

"….out of them. I won't have you die on me because of hypothermia. Strip, now!"

Felicity probably didn't realize what she was saying, her mind clearly on Oliver and his apparent battle with the chills.

John suppressed a laugh and instead said, "I'll do a perimeter check then look around. I assume you were able to evade them but it's always better for us to be vigilant." He held up his phone to Oliver, a message for them to stay in contact. "Felicity has your phone."

And with that he left, because Oliver in that state, not in his usual state of full control, shivering and clearly showing early signs of hypothermia, that meant only one thing. Oliver had to stay in the chilling water longer than any human could possible have survived. He had to over-extend his body to keep the men occupied with him and more importantly to give John the chance to get Felicity to safety.

John knew it took a lot for Oliver to be physically on his last legs so to speak. The man was in peek condition, trained hours every day.

Now it was up to John to return the favor. Keep Felicity and his friend safe while Oliver recovered.

Felicity realized she had not thought though what was now happening before her eyes.

Oliver was now stripping, yeah stripping. Slowly, not as in male dancer type of slow but slow because he was still really shivering, his teeth now uncontrollably chattering.

They were still in the living room. No fireplace. Felicity looked around, one thing she knew was she should get him warmed up or risked him falling into an unconscious state. Nope, she had to take action. He's life was literally in her hands at this point. Even tough men like Oliver succumb to something at some point.

Towels, thank god there were towels in the bathroom. It was partially habitable. She had Oliver wrapped up in towels, no clothes to change into. Or at least that is what she concluded. She hadn't had time to explore the place.

Felicity had taken a towel and placed it under water, proceeding to wipe of as much dirt and filth as she could off Oliver. When she was finally content that he didn't smell like grime anymore she guided him to the bed.

Oliver was now under layers and layers of blankets but he was still shivering, a lot. He was also loosing a battle with his consciousness.

No. Felicity was determined to not let that happen, at least not until he was out of imminent danger. He could sleep all he wanted when his body temperature returned to normal.

Felicity groaned, a silent groan. Or maybe it wasn't as silent as she thought because Oliver in the middle of shivering focused his eyes on her.

She groaned because she had an idea. A bad idea. An idea that was so bad but at the same time it was the only probable one that was going to work at this point.

Body Heat. Shared body heat.

She had seen this in tv, watch all those documentaries. It was a sure fire solution to the current dilemma.

Except it required her to also strip, because a naked Felicity would warm up a naked Oliver faster, skin to skin contact.

Oh she prayed that he was so far out of it that he wouldn't remember any of this happening tomorrow.

She talked to her self, giving herself a pep talk as she stripped.

Telling herself it will only be a few minutes, a few minutes of naked bodies touching.

When she was stripped down to her bra and panties, she quickly dived under the covers. Yeah she wasn't giving him a peep show even in his state. Who knew what erotic dream men had when they were at that state.

She shimmied out of her panties then unhooked her bra, both of which she threw to the floor. There would be time to pick them up later, in a few minutes time. When Oliver was more himself and she would be back fully clothed.

"Come here."

Oliver didn't move, he couldn't.

Not only because he really was shivering and not in full control of his mind and body but because there was a woman, a naked woman, in bed with him.

A fully naked woman named Felicity Smoak who was in bed with him, he who was also very naked.

This could be his deepest desire and most buried desire, ever. At least since earlier tonight when he first saw her in that dress. Or maybe it was even before that, a day ago. Two days ago. Four days ago.

He didn't allow himself to go there because this was just not possible. Oliver Queen naked in bed with Felicity Smoak. Sure it actually was possible. But Oliver knew if he went there, actually went there. It would be life changing. For him. She was that type of woman whom he wouldn't be able to recover from. Forbidden fruit. So opposite of whom he stood for.

He darkness, she light.

Oliver was operating purely on instinct, basic primal instinct when he made a heavy effort to drag her body to him. It took even more effort for him not to sigh out loud when despite the coldness and dampness of his body. He felt jolts of electricity course through it.

She was rubbing his arms, his chest. Please don't let her go any lower because something was starting coming alive down south.

Oliver focused his mind on something else. Anything else but what was happening at that moment.

Dmitri Karpov. The man was a dead man walking.

As soon as Oliver recovered the man was dead. He had been marked for death the moment his eyes had landed on Felicity. It would be a slow and brutal death.

His most brutal one yet.

No. Oliver backtracked.

Get Felicity to safety first. Far, very far away from him. Then, he would have all the time in the world for Dmitri.

Felicity was still rubbing Oliver's arms while talking to her self in chant.

Oh My God! Oh My God!

Shit! Shit! Shit!

Frack! Frack! Frack!

She was naked. Oliver Queen was naked. They were naked together. In Bed! In Bed! Manly, chiseled, Starling City's most eligible bachelor, naked and in bed with her!

This felt so wrong groping the man, except she wasn't, not really. But dear lord, the man was a perfect specimen. Even if all she did was ran her fingers across his chest to his arms, rubbing his neck, his face, his hair. Never venturing lower than his abs, his perfect abs. She knew, the man would be a sight to behold.

One she would never get to see under any circumstances.

She felt some warmth coming back into Oliver's body. She felt him start to relax. At least relaxed enough to be gently run his thumb up and down her arm.

Oh no, her eyes were getting heavy. His actions were lulling her to sleep.

No. No. No. She wasn't going to close her eyes. Nope.

Not happening!

Oliver pulled her even closer to him.

God, Felicity was silently screaming! This felt so good.

So Good.

It was her last thought before she succumbed to sleep.

Felicity opened one eye, then the other slowly.

 _What just happened? Felicity asked herself that question for probably the twentieth time during the last five minutes, still trying to gather her wit because the picture that was currently painted given her state wasn't really encouraging._

 _Where was she?_

 _Why was she naked?_

 _And whose arm was currently wrapped around her waist locking her in place?_

 _Her back to his front._

 _When Felicity finally found the courage to turn around she was frozen, her eyes popped as she realized who was in bed with her._

 _Oliver Queen._

And he was just looking at her. Eyes no longer glassy.

Clear blue, very blue eyes, staring at her, intently.

Sweet Baby Jesus!


	5. Chapter 5

_**Author's Notes: It's like I'm on repeat but really a big thank you to y'all for the support. Your comments, kudos, likes, favorites, reposts, every single one served as my inspiration to write this chapter.**_

 _ **It gives me genuine pleasure to be able to bring a smile to your faces every time to read a chapter. But then again with Bratva Oliver and Sassy Felicity, i could never go wrong.**_

 _ **Since we settle chapter 2 cliffy during the last chapter, I thought I'd bring on another cliffy. A mini one.**_

 _ **If you continue to love this story and thought I did a passable job with this chapter, i hope you can drop me a message in any of the following mediums:**_

 _ **Archive Of Our Own via lollipopdiaries**_

 _ **Fanfiction via lollipopdiairies**_

 _ **Tumblr via everythinglollipop**_

 _ **Twitter via lollipopsays (lollipopdiairies)**_

 _ **Crossing my fingers that this would be a good one for y'all.**_

* * *

 **FIRE AND ICE**

 **Chapter 5 – You Make My Dreams**

Felicity opened one eye, then the other slowly.

What just happened? Felicity asked herself that question for probably the twentieth time during the last five minutes, still trying to gather her wit because the picture that was currently painted given her state wasn't really encouraging.

Where was she?

Why was she naked?

And whose arm was currently wrapped around her waist locking her in place?

Her back to his front.

When Felicity finally found the courage to turn around she was frozen, her eyes popped as she realized who was in bed with her.

Oliver Queen.

And he was just looking at her. Eyes no longer glassy.

Clear blue, very blue eyes, staring at her, intently.

Her breath caught.

Paralyzed.

That was how she felt at that moment. Paralyzed.

Physically, there was nothing keeping her in place. But mentally, she just couldn't look away from Oliver's intense gaze.

A gaze that was telling her he that he was now fully aware of what had transpired last night. He'd probably been awake much earlier than she was. And because Oliver was an astute man, he was able to piece together what his recollection might have lacked.

The thing was. Oliver chose to remain silent just staring at her, intently. Intensely.

Felicity had now shifted from being paralyzed in place to now feeling awkward.

Oliver was naked. She was naked. So yes, awkward.

Finally finding the strength to look away from Oliver, Felicity was able to evaluate their current situation. Sunlight had invaded the room so it was already morning. They had slept throughout the night, naked. Not exactly slept together done the deed, but still skin to skin naked. With Oliver spooning her. Both of them could have shifted during the night and when she meant both, she mostly meant her because Oliver was still facing the same way he was last night. She on the other hand had been facing him originally.

His arm however was not on her waist last night. Nope, so sometime during the night Oliver had pulled her even closer to him and wrapped his arm around her when she turned to her back. Unconsciously, because she didn't really think Oliver would do something like that consciously. At least not with her.

Right now however, her most pressing problem was how to get out of the bed.

She not only had to pee and really, really needed to take a shower. But more than that, she didn't want them to get more awkward than they already were.

The thing was, between the two of them. It looked like she was the only one feeling awkward. Oliver on the other hand was his usual self. Stoic. Deadpan. Intense.

Felicity started to wiggle to her left to allow her to move closer to her side of the edge of the bed. Without looking at him or even acknowledging him, she finally landed her feet on the floor leaving her in an even more awkward position of being half-in and half-out.

Cursing to herself, she pulled one of several layers of blankets covering them slowly so that it would serve to cover her naked body as she continued to shift out of the bed.

She tugged on the blanket twice without avail. Since she and Oliver had shared blankets, the blankets were still tucked underneath his body effectively locking his end in place.

Not wanting to look to her right for fear that she would once again be locked under the spell of his baby blues. She just continued to pull at the blanket. After one long exhale, she gave the blanket a strong pull realizing a second too late that Oliver had probably maneuvered his body so that he wouldn't continue to lock the blanket in place.

With the blanket now free, the momentum of using her full force shifted her body in such a way that she fell all the way with a loud thud, her butt landing on the floor heavily.

The blanket following half a second later.

"Frack!"

This wasn't happening! She wasn't embarrassing herself even further.

She moaned, loudly, more because her butt really hurt but still got no reaction from him. Arse.

Armed with her willpower, she wrapped the blanket around her and finally stood up. In an almost fluid motion she picked up the undergarments she discarded last night and her abandoned dress in one swoop conscious of the fact that she was probably blushing profusely.

She started to walk toward the bathroom but on her way managed one more peak at Oliver and was almost stopped on her tracks when she realized he was following her progress across the room with the same intense look.

Damn the man!

Felicity finally made it to the bathroom and slammed the door shut, pressing her back against the door.

This was even worst than a one-night stand. Not that she ever did one-night stands.

Because she imagined with one-night stands that extended to the morning after, there was at least some level of small talk involved.

Her and Oliver however had nothing. Just intense and calculating looks, from his side.

When Oliver finally heard the shower starting, he finally got up and off the bed. Truth was he couldn't move even if he wanted to.

He was however more concerned with her not knowing the reason why.

His dick was already partially erect when he first woke up which was normal for men. But because of the position they were in, Oliver could sense his half-erect muscle slowly but surely started to become fully alive.

At first he thought that was what had brought Felicity to consciousness. He was internally relieved when he realized it wasn't. More than ever, he exerted every effort to control himself and not embarrass the both of them with his uncontrolled libido.

So he kept his actions including his facial reaction to her in check by maintaining his usual intense and broody stance.

Even when Felicity had tried to maneuver away from him wiggling and twisting, he willed himself to stay still.

It was better for her to believe he was aloof and distant because that was what he had always been with her, or at least strived to be.

When he first woke up, two things had immediately stood out to him. First, that he was still in bed with a woman when the sun was up. Second, that he was spooning the said woman. Two things he had never ever done before.

No doubt, Oliver Queen was a sexual man. He had sex frequently in his youth. More than the average for a young man of his age had, not only because he was a Queen but even without the added percentage of being the heir to a fortune Oliver was an attractive man, a very attractive man. And he took advantage of every opportunity that came his way. It was a symbol of his status. All the women wanted him. And he wanted all of them as long as they understood that it was just sex.

During his time in Russia, his appetite for sex changed. Sex became an act necessary only for release of frustration. Pleasure never became a part of it.

He never did relationships in his youth and this carried on during his ten years in Russia.

He just did the act and left or kicked out the woman of the night. No frills. No drama. He never let a woman ever stay, enjoyed post-coital bliss with her enough for her to stay until sunrise.

He definitely did not spoon! Spooning required him to have emotions. Emotions meant he had to have feelings for his partner. So no. No spooning ever happened.

The emotion Oliver felt when he first stirred and realized their sleeping positions, he and Felicity, and that he was the one with his arm around her waist, overwhelmed him. Overwhelmed his senses.

It felt foreign, but at the same time it felt right. He wasn't sure if it was more the act than the woman although if he were being honest he would conclude that it was 100% because of the woman and only because that woman was Felicity.

Oliver picked up his soiled pants and put them on. Without a change of clothes, it would have to do. He picked up to rest of his clothes and exited the room because he knew there more pressing matters that needed to be taken cared of now that Dmitri Karpov knew he had failed in his plan.

He only made it about three steps outside the bedroom when he spotted John Diggle seated calmly on the kitchen table cleaning his guns making Oliver change his direction and walk toward the man.

John put down the barrel of the gun he was meticulously cleaning when his friend appeared before him and anticipating his query immediately launched into conversation.

"A change of clothes," John pointed to a chair, "for you and Felicity and just a few of her gadgets. That's all I took from the hotel. We don't want Karpov to be spooked if I took everything. It's all we will need anyway. I also made a few calls and got us another SUV that's waiting outside. I assumed you'd want us to be back at Starling the soonest."

Oliver just nodded in answer.

John gave his friend a more thorough speculative look, "I was hoping we'd be able to leave before daybreak but I guess you needed more time to recover. You were totally out of it." The rest of John's statement which should have been, ' _which was completely unusual and out of character for you_ ' was left unsaid.

Oliver however being the astute man that he was read between the lines but the line that caught him the most was the one that John voiced, he said Oliver was totally out of it meaning he had probably peaked inside the room and what he saw would have been exactly how Oliver had seen what Felicity and him had looked liked, like lovers. Lovers who just had to have every inch of their skin in contact with the other.

On one hand John did know that Oliver was freezing when he first walked in the door, that he had to get out of his very wet clothes because even the mightiest have their limits. But then the way they looked, she didn't really have to be totally naked or did she. Truth was, he didn't really think about it until now. He really couldn't think about anything else except how her body felt like next to his.

Oliver gave John a look as if to gauge his friends reaction but John surprised him.

"The woman is remarkably unbreakable. At first glance you'd think she was quite fragile but really her spirit, that one has the soul of a warrior. I know you were thinking of pushing her away. But maybe keeping her close would be better now that the Bratva is aware of her. Not just for her sake, but more for yours." Cryptic as usual.

Oliver's only answer was to pinch the bridge of his nose and an almost imperceptible nod before he turned away to pick up his change of clothes and walked toward another bathroom.

* * *

"You may be the boss of me but it's still my life. My choice."

Oliver had to temper his natural reaction to anyone who would dare to argue and reason with him, for her. Despite her being one of his employees, he just couldn't for some reason force his decision on to her.

"You easily forget that you almost died yesterday. That the people who almost succeeded in getting all of us killed could try again. And while this was initially more about me, now that they know about you or think they know about you, you are equally in danger if not more so. These are ruthless people Felicity. A life is of no value to them."

"But aren't you the same then? You and this secret life you lead? Which you still haven't fully explained to me by the way despite you saying you would."

Oliver looked at Felicity, his eyes again intensely looking at her before he said, "don't you trust me? After all we've been through?"

Felicity blushed at the double meaning of his statement since both of them had decided to ignore what had happened the night before and had just gone on as if everything but that happened.

"How could I? When there are secrets between us. When there are so many versions of Oliver Queen. Tell me, which one should I trust? Which one am I talking to now?"

"You know I could always just lock you up at the Queen Mansion and no one would be the wiser."

At the not even veiled threat Felicity faced him fully in the small confines of the SUV, radiating anger, her eyes narrowing as she pointed a finger with chipped red nail polish at him, "oh don't you even go there Oliver. You don't know what I'm capable of."

Oliver raised a brow at her statement fighting between taking up her challenge for the hell of it and just following his instinct to give in to what she wanted in the meantime. The later won.

"Fine, John and I will take you to your apartment. But if even just a whisper reaches my ears about a new threat, I'd personally pack you out of your apartment and move you to the Mansion. No argument."

Felicity, anticipating Oliver to continue his moderate argument with her had been taken aback by his conceding easily earning a frown of confusion from her.

"You're giving in, just like that." Felicity told him snapping her fingers as she said the last part of her statement for emphasis. "You're up to something." Felicity concluded. Reading him well.

Oliver didn't answer her. In fact, the rest of the way to her apartment he mostly ignored her.

For her part, Felicity crossed her arms over her chest, acting like a petulant child. Thank God, her apartment was finally coming into view. She had already planned her day. It was barely eleven in the morning. If she took a really quick shower and change, she could still make it to QC. It was only mid-Friday anyway, as a newly appointed Assistant Manager she vowed to put her best foot forward and fight all the rumors about her by doing the best job she could. Including dragging herself to QC if only to prove to all, she didn't expect special treatment. Even if she was sure that probably no one in QC could guess what she had been through the night before.

As soon as John has pulled up, she opened the door to the SUV ready to dash to her apartment only to be stopped by Oliver's large hand on her arm.

"Don't just jump out of the car just yet."

Felicity this time raised an eyebrow at Oliver but she was mostly ignored. He however continued to hold her arm while his attention was fully on John, as if waiting for a signal.

John, who had checked his phone upon parking, answered Oliver anticipating his question, "all clear."

With that Oliver let go of Felicity's arm and she immediately bolted from the car and intended to make it all the way to her apartment ignoring him. She didn't need them to help her carry her luggage anyway because her luggage was no more. There was only her phone and her tablet, which John took from the hotel.

She was surprised however when not only Oliver but John too strode beside her as if they normally did, inside her building.

"What the hell do you think you're both doing!"

Oliver ignored her once again and just went ahead toward the stairs.

John gave her a small smile, probably a consolation for Oliver's actions. "He just wants to make sure that your apartment is secure."

Felicity paused on the stairs and turned around to face John since he had chosen to bring up the rear, "he is not my keeper, nor my bodyguard. For god's sake, he's my boss! In what dimension does this look right?"

John shrugged, "he's just being thorough. You've had the chance to spend a few days with him. You know by now he could be a little intense."

"A little! A little! How about a lot! A ginormous lot!"

With that, Felicity grumpily took the stairs the rest of the way to her apartment only to stop dead on her tracks as she reached her floor.

Oliver was taking everything in. The narrow corridor, the almost none existent lighting. He was even glaring at the three other doors on her floor, her neighbours. Sensing Felicity's presence, Oliver finally turned to Felicity letting his eyes roam her whole being.

Oliver finally stepped toward her although his stare did not falter, "I said I'd agree to you staying here, despite my better judgment. But what I didn't agree to would be for you to stay here by yourself. No, that would just be ridiculous. I am many things but ridiculous I am not."

Felicity gulped. Where they to share her apartment? Was he saying what she thought he was saying? Because at no time in the last more or less thirty minutes they were mildly arguing did she anticipate he would pull something like this.

And the way he was staring at her, she sure hell felt whatever he was saying, he meant every word of it and was going to stand his ground.

* * *

 _You should know by now I have a flair for the dramatic cliffy. This one is however more eyebrow raising. Next update will be next week._


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Notes: It's like I'm on repeat but really a big thank you to y'all for the support. Your comments, kudos, likes, favorites, reposts, every single one served as my inspiration to write this chapter.**

 **A long chapter read for everyone. We are more than halfway already since this story willl run for just 10 chapters as I already indicated. All the action and excitement you wish for is here and it leads to an even next chapter.**

 **Would love those comments and reactions please, now is the time to send me the love...so I know all of you are still with me enjoying the story as much as I enjoyed and labored writing it.**

 **Archive Of Our Own via lollipopdiaries**

 **Fanfiction via lollipopdiairies**

 **Tumblr via everythinglollipop**

 **Twitter via lollipopsays (lollipopdiairies)**

 **Crossing my fingers that this would be a good one for y'all.**

* * *

 **FIRE AND ICE**

 **Chapter 6 – Private Eyes**

Felicity grumpily took the stairs the rest of the way to her apartment only to stop dead on her tracks as she reached her floor.

Oliver was taking everything in. The narrow corridor, the almost none existent lighting. He was even glaring at the three other doors in on her floor. Sensing Felicity's presence, Oliver finally turned to Felicity letting his eyes roam her whole being.

Oliver finally stepped toward her although his stare did not falter, "I said I'd agree to you staying here, despite my better judgment. But what I didn't agree to would be for you to stay here by yourself. No, that would just be ridiculous. I am many things but ridiculous I am not."

Felicity gulped. Where they to share her apartment? Was he saying what she thought he was saying? Because at no time in the last more or less thirty minutes they were mildly arguing did she anticipate he would pull something like this.

And the way he was staring at her, she sure hell felt whatever he was saying, he meant every word of it and was going to stand his ground.

The next moment Oliver looked beyond Felicity, "John?"

"Inside."

"Who's inside? What's going on? Wait, inside where? My apartment?" Felicity asked confusion marring her face then her eyes bulged as her apartment door opened from the inside and a fair skinned woman stepped out.

"How? What? Who?" Felicity asked the questions in succession, more confused than ever when John stepped forward and embraced the woman warmly before he released the woman and both he and the woman faced Felicity.

"Felicity, I'd like you to meet Lyla this is Felicity, Felicity this is Lyla, my wife."

"Oh. Oh wait," Felicity lifted a palm still confused finally pointing a finger at the woman. "But how did…."

"I'm former army like my husband here and worked for a covert agency of the government after for a few years. That's actually how I met John. I picked up some skills which has become very useful now in my line of work," Lyla finished her quick explanation with a shrug.

"Maybe we should continue this inside?" John interrupted gesturing for them to go inside the apartment.

During the whole exchange Oliver had again remained silent and had been the last to enter Felicity's apartment glancing around the room with deliberateness lingering on the bay windows with a frown.

Because both John and Lyla were familiar with Oliver, Lyla stepped up and answered his unspoken concern, "I already checked out the roof tops of the only two building with an angle to this apartment as well as the units with access. I anticipate it won't be a major concern."

Oliver's grunt was the only response before he stepped toward the short hallway that would bring him to the bedroom.

Still confused by what was happening it took Felicity a few seconds to realize what Oliver intended to do which was to walk into her bedroom, her private place, her sanctuary which still had clothes carelessly thrown over the bed, over the armchair and maybe on the floor since she took sometime to decide what to pack for a trip with the Oliver Queen and hadn't had time to put some order to her bedroom since John had already arrived to fetch her. It was like a clothing store threw up in her bedroom.

She sprinted ahead passing Oliver and blocked her bedroom door with her body just as Oliver was about a foot away making him stop dead in his tracks and raise a brow in question.

"No need for you to go inside."

Oliver frowned at her action. Of course he knew woman were sometimes territorial about their bedroom, it was suppose to be a reflection of the inner woman or something like that. He'd been inside women's bedrooms in his youth to last him a lifetime but this was not about getting more insight on the woman who had at the very least piqued his interest. It was about him checking or double-checking since Lyla had probably done the task. That the bedroom was safe and any entry to it was secured. At least he was trying to convince himself that it was 100% about the second part but even he knew he was lying to himself.

He wanted a glimpse of a window to the soul of Felicity, through her bedroom. Who was he kidding?

He then did what Felicity totally did not expect. He lifted her by her waist away from blocking her bedroom door all the way to the side and then the next second he pushed the knob open to get inside her room.

Felicity sputtered. What had just happened? How dare he just manhandle, was that manhandling? She didn't care! He couldn't just ignore her wish and just use his clearly superior strength! Grrrr, the man was totally getting a lecture about boundaries. She marched to follow him inside her bedroom and was surprised to find her bedroom pristine.

Not a thing was misplaced.

In fact, her bedroom looked like one of the Good Housekeeping featured quirky bedrooms in purple, pink, orange, beige and gray. Someone cleaned up the messy space. Felicity frowned at the thought and started to panic before she realized it must be Lyla. Lyla who was married to John and who had somehow gotten inside her apartment to not only check it for safety but also to clean up after her?

Her thoughts were interrupted when she registered that Oliver had stopped in front of the photo on top of her side table, a photo that contained a picture of her and her mother in Vegas. She was just ten years old and when living was a struggling but it was the happiest Felicity had been. She brought that picture with her in MIT and kept it ever since with her.

"It's always been just my Mom and me until I left for that scholarship at MIT. My Mom died during my third year at MIT, she never told me she had cancer or was dying because of it." Felicity felt obliged to share with him, not that he was asking or maybe he was subconsciously since he continued to stare at the photo hardly even acknowledging what she just said.

Felicity finally got hold of the photo and placed it inside the table drawer breaking Oliver's trance.

"Everything okay in here?" John's voice drifted from the small apartment hallway, his heavy footsteps could be heard even before he pushed the door to Felicity's bedroom open.

Oliver shifted his focus to John nodding, "everything's fine." Then he shifted back to Felicity, "are you sure you'll be fine here?"

Felicity stepped back more puzzled now because she had resigned herself to be 'prisoner' in her own apartment with Oliver as prison guard but maybe she missed something because why would he be asking her if she would be fine if he intended to stay?

"Huh? I thought? Nevermind." Felicity answered him frowning and a little disappointed if she were truly honest with herself.

Reading her thoughts Oliver asked, "do you want me to stay?"

"Do you want to stay?" Felicity answered him back quickly.

"Whatever you want," was Oliver's simple answer.

"No. Yes. Maybe. I don't know." Felicity sat down defeated on the bed. "Is this Karpov guy really going to be after me?"

Oliver crouched down in front of her, his hands on either side of the bed as he faced her. "I don't want to alarm you but the way this works puts you right in the bullseye. It's better that you know this."

"This. This! I don't even know what this is! You keep hinting at something. Speaking in a foreign language that I am 100% sure is Russian. I may only be a tech genius but I know something bigger than anything I've ever know is at play here and it has something to do with your time in Russia." Felicity stood up and started to pace her bedroom floor as she spoke.

"I'm sorry for putting you in the middle of this," Oliver said, regret obvious in his voice.

Felicity faced Oliver. "Maybe it's time you told me about what this is?"

"I'll be with Lyla over at the living room," John interrupted them getting Oliver's attention as John gave him a loaded look before closing the door again. Truth was they had both forgotten that John was in the room with them.

"You want a refill?" John asked his wife as he headed for the kitchen nook.

"I take it he's finally coming clean?" Lyla asked her husband anticipating why they were staying put at least for a few more minutes.

"Yeah, about time too. They are both in too deep. She deserves to know what he has gotten her into."

Lyla sat down comfortably on the couch, "then I reckon we should use the time to make alternative plans? I assume plan A is out? Me staying over with Felicity?"

John sat down on the couch beside his wife handing her the cup of coffee he promised her, "after he tells her all about the Bratva he should do everything in his power to make sure that's she is safe including convincing her to move in with him at the Mansion."

Lyla took a sip of coffee before she gave her husband a smirk, "good luck with that. You know I anticipated this would happen. I had Raisa prepare a room for Felicity, the one beside his. You know even the short time I've seen them interact together. I know there is something there."

John circled his arm around his wife before he answered with a smirk, "you and me both. You and me both."

* * *

Felicity walked into her office at exactly two in the afternoon, a good two hours later than she had planned but still after the back and forth she and Oliver had during the past hour she was proud of her hard earned mini-victory when he caved and let her get her way and go to QC for what she claimed was important work that couldn't wait 'til the next week. He made her promise him however that they leave at exactly five in the afternoon.

Of course her mini-victory was technically a hollow one considering Oliver himself had also decided to proceed to QC claiming that he too had pressing work to attend to and that he might as well take care of it too.

Looks like Oliver meant it when he said he'd attached himself to her hip if necessary not that it would even be remotely practical or even possible for that to happen. Well, medical it would be possible but for that to happen she would probably have to agree to it being done so no, the probability of that happening was more negative than zero.

So here they where, in their corners so to speak, she focused on her work in her office and he in his.

"IT wants you to sign-off on this," her gay assistant dropped some documents on her table and his finger pointed on a blank line for emphasis. Also, Mr. Martin our former boss and esteemed head of IT asked if he could have a few minutes of your time whenever you're available."

Felicity lifted a brow as did her assistant both of them not particularly concerned about what Mr. Martin wanted.

"Oh and just so you know, gossip has picked up about you and his hotness."

And okay, by this time Felicity had gotten used to the preferred term her gay assistant used to describe the boss man. And speaking of, 'his hotness' suddenly appeared at her door distracting both Felicity and her assistant but it was the way her assistant's eyes lingered over mister hotness for a few seconds before he turned back to her and fanned himself dramatically that made her want to throw something at her assistant fortunately assistant number two chose that moment to enter her office bringing with her more documents as well as a usb drive.

"Mr. Queen, I hope you and Ms. Smoak had a lovely vacation." Second assistant said by way of a greeting.

And whatever pleasant thoughts she had about preferring assistant number two over assistant number one vanished at that statement.

"I told you, it wasn't a vacation. It was a business trip!" Felicity repeated not for the first time probably, Oliver noted.

"Tell that to the gossip sites who had photos of the both of you at that Club in Central," assistant number two insisted at least she had the decency to look apologetically at Oliver before she dropped the documents she was carrying to a side table, "Applied Sciences needs your inputs on these asap," in an all business tone this time.

Ignoring what her second assistant had said, her attention shifted to Oliver observing him scrutinizing both her assistants as they tried to put some order into all the pending items that had accumulated during the almost three days she had been out of the office.

If anyone had questioned his decision in promoting her and creating an entire department for her before, it seems no one did now. At least none of the department that had direct links to the outputs expected from her office. There was no doubt that Cyber Security Department was now an integral part of QC and it's systems.

"I assume you're here because it's time to go?" Felicity asked getting his attention. "Not that I'd like to make a habit of it because I'm not going to, but I'd like to take home some of the documents so I can review them. It's not as if I'd be stepping foot outside the Queen Mansion the whole weekend?"

The dropping of papers on the floor and two audible twin gasps reminded Felicity that she and Oliver where not alone inside her office and that whoever had heard her would definitely read her statement differently which was why she suddenly turned defensively to the other people inside her office.

"Not that it's any of your concern but whatever that sounded like, it wasn't. Because Oliver, that's Mr. Queen and I are not…" Felicity faltered searching for words.

"Not living together?"

"So you're not staying at the Queen Mansion?

Both her assistants asked her separate questions one on top of the other and there was just no way Felicity could dig a bigger hole for herself without further incriminating both her and Oliver. Thankfully Oliver had stepped in an answered for her although she wasn't sure it was the correct way to address the questions.

"Let me remind both of you that gossiping is not tolerated at all here QC. If rumors spread around about what you heard here today, you know it wouldn't end well for your employment possibilities here."

The CEO threatening his employees with termination was definitely not the best option in handling the situation but then again Oliver was never know to mince words.

Reality was, several employees had seen them entering QC together with Oliver's arm protectively on the small of her back. So it really wasn't far fetched for anyone to assume there was something between them. What made that even more intriguing was that since Oliver had transferred back to Starling City from Russia, he was never willingly seen in the company of a woman unless it was in a public function where anyone could get a photographed with him.

What was equally putting both of them on the spot was Felicity's brain to mouth filter. Anyone who bothered to listen to her would come to a conclusion about the kind of relationship they had. Oliver had after all taken a unique and personal interest in her when he 'created' a department for her.

Thankfully both her assistants had taken to heart Oliver's warning and had hurriedly dropped the documents they had been helping Felicity filter through and exited her room without saying anything else.

Felicity leaned back on her chair, her arms crossed. "You know you didn't have to do that. Both my assistance are harmless. If anything, your telling them off would just pique their interest. I chose those two for a reason."

Oliver as usual refused to justify himself, instead his eyes lingering on her face noting how tired she really was however much she tried to hide it.

It turns out she was right. They spent all of the weekend inside the Mansion although she really wasn't sure if it was really all because of the Russian mob or because paparazzi started to follow them around.

The press didn't even try to hide their renewed interest in Oliver. Her assistants were right after all. The photos of Oliver at the Club in Central did heighten interest in him again although not quite to the level yet as when he first stepped foot back in Starling from Russia.

This time the interest was definitely because Felicity had been photographed with him. The gossip sites and celebrity reporters were having a field day with this information.

Finally, something juicy to write about Oliver Queen who for all intents in purposes had lived a boring life, nothing worthy and headline grabbing like was his staple as a younger man.

While Felicity was never a fan of confined spaces, the Mansion could never be considered as small or confined. Expecting to be put out by her temporary imprisonment, she surprised even herself when her apprehension was replaced by excitement. Exploring the Mansion and it's surrounding became her new favorite adventure.

Maybe this had something to do with the welcome she received upon her arrival.

Lyla had been by her side almost immediately although she was initially tasked as personal bodyguard of Felicity, after the initial awkward few minutes they had gotten along splendidly. During the first hour she had also met Raisa who was full Russian and in full mama bear mode taking her under her wing from the second they met.

Friday night had bled into Saturday then turned into Sunday with Felicity happily forgetting everything that was beyond the tightly guarded gates of the Mansion.

Oliver for his part had been noticeably absent during the weekend. She had seen him come and go usually with John, he had warned her that he would be attending to his other business, the Bratva business during the next few days all to ensure that Felicity was safe.

By Sunday evening, Oliver had finally reappeared, joining her for dinner. And that signaled the mood change because Lyla has conspicuously left the dinner table the moment Oliver arrived. It might have been pre-arranged after all because the dinner table had been set up for just two.

She was hard pressed to believe their was anything romantic about the dinner but from instinct and what she now knew of Oliver, he had chosen this time to clear the air with her.

They were halfway through dinner when Oliver finally started.

"You'll have to stay-in a few more days. Our intel tells us that Karpov has been spotted in Starling."

Felicity immediately put down her fork and faced Oliver.

"By staying in you mean stay here, at the Mansion, your house?" Felicity addressed the question she thought was simpler between the two.

Oliver leaned back on his chair, his appetite gone, "i mean you'll have to stay here for the next few days and not leave."

Felicity please both her hands on the edge of the dinner table more to center herself than anything else because she thought Oliver misspoke, "by not leaving the Mansion what you're saying is that we won't be at QC, at all."

"Yes." Oliver nodded for emphasis then recalled her statement and went to amend it, "you will not leave the Mansion. You'll have to stay inside."

Felicity felt her blood start to boil because again, while he was the boss of her, he wasn't the boss of her life. She had allowed him to dictate her life so far. But this had gone on far enough never mind if some Russian mafia wanted her dead. She didn't want to be dead. But she also didn't want someone else making decisions for her.

"And if I don't…remain in the Mansion I mean? If I choose to go to QC? Chose to live my life?"

"Then I will just have to follow thru with my threat the first time around."

Felicity was confused for a few seconds then it became clearer to her. In one of the similar back and forth they had previously, he threated to tie her, in bed. And she so didn't want to flash back to that day since they had been peacefully co-habiting inside the Mansion so far.

"You wouldn't."

"I would. Try me."

Deadlock.

This was definitely not your typical dinner conversation. But then, Oliver and she weren't really typical. They were anything but.

"I told you before, don't dare me. You really don't know what I am capable of. What I may do."

Oliver wasn't troubled. He knew how to deal with Felicity. Or at least he thought he had known her a little better now. Knew what she would be capable of and how far she would go.

"Упрямая женщина!"

And there he was again talking in that sexy language, Felicity thought. Whatever that was he said Felicity was sure it was about her and probably not a glowing comment.

"There have been enough rumors about us…..even if there's no us, there is me and there is you. Me being here in the Queen Mansion is already creating quite a fire storm in the media. I know because for the first time ever in my life I found myself googling myself and believe me, I have moved from zero to a couple of hundred thousand hits in the span of three days. Me! That's only by association, to you!"

Oliver folded his arms over his chest as he listen to Felicity. No woman he had known ever talked that fast before. Definitely no woman he knew talked to him the way she did. He was a Captain of the Bratva after all. He was given respect in Russia. Never talked to unless asked.

With his return to Starling and his assuming the CEO position in QC, no one, not even the Board of Directors treated him as if he was an equal. No, everyone at QC placed him in a pedestal. Maybe because he had been savior to a flailing company before he swooped in.

It had always been just John Diggle and to a certain degree Lyla, John's wife and Raisa, a distant relative of Anatoly and guardian to Oliver when he first stepped foot in Russia and tested the waters of the Bratva who had dared to tell him of.

Now comes this woman, Felicity. And she was showing no fear at all. Not in speaking her mind. Not when faced with a problem at QC and apparently not even when faced with the prospect of death.

He was sure she'd know what that felt like by this time having been at that situation in Central when they were attacked by Karpov's men but the woman just had loads of resilience, as good or even greater than the best Bratva men. Once again Oliver remembered what John had mentioned to him a few days ago, Felicity would make a fine addition to the Bratva. The capacity in which John had however suggested Felicity fit right into was just….well, Oliver wasn't getting into that. He swore to keep her safe and that's what he would do if it killed him. If bombs and assassination attempts failed to kill him, he was sure the woman before would succeed in killing him even without her realizing it. She would be the death of him.

Felicity picked up her fork and began to move around the remainder of the pasta that was still on her plate when she suddenly spoke again, "what if…instead of waiting it out with this Karpov guy and his goons, you….we, we just bait him out. I've seen this in the movie's you know."

Oliver narrowed his eyes at Felicity and she could feel a mood swing change in him from intense to super nova intense accentuated by his pushing his chair away as he stood, "this is not a game. I will not play with your life."

Feeling like a child scolded, Felicity also pushed her chair back and was in his face for what she felt was a longtime coming call-out, "I didn't ask for all of this remember," she gestured with her hands around her, "you pulled me into this," without knowing what she was doing Felicity was stabbing a finger to his chest repeatedly the commotion brought both John and Lyla to the dinning table ready to defend….at that point it was a toss up who they would side with since Felicity had grown on the husband and wife.

"Don't test me!" Oliver grabbed her finger and folded it so he could grab her risk bringing her closer to him, chest to chest.

"Then don't test me!" Felicity answered with equal intensity.

Deadlock.

John and Lyla ended up with identical smirks as they look at the couple then at each other before they walked out of the dinning hall both believing the two can work this out eventually, when they get pass whatever it was that was between them. More than ever, the Diggle's were convinced that the two people they left in the room where made for each other, a match.

* * *

"Tell me again why I needed to get all dolled up?" Felicity said fiddling with her clutch as Oliver and her made their way via a black car to a gala in Starling City.

"Because you insisted on using yourself as enticement!" Oliver let his eyes roam over Felicity and once again was hit with a wave of emotion that he struggled to keep at bay so his words ended up being harsher than he intended.

He had never been put in any similar scenario were a woman would willingly put herself in harms way. Felicity was so far removed from the woman he had encountered that truthfully he didn't know how to handle her most of the time. As soon as he had that thought, it was followed by a comprehension.

Felicity didn't need to be handled. She had survived, made a life for herself. Bettered herself without someone handling her. She did what she wanted. She lived the life she wanted. She said it before, her life, her choice.

And that was when Oliver finally understood why he was so unbalanced. It wasn't because of the Bratva and all that was happening right now. He had been in far worst situations with the Bratva, his life in Russia was proof of that. He survived the upending of his life twice. First when his family was taken from him in one sweep, then again when his youth was taken from his with the reveal of the Bratva and his expected role in the organization.

His life had again been upended but this time it wasn't a slap to the face upending. This one was a slow burn turn beginning with Felicity entering his sphere to the point that their lives were now so intertwined with no chance of it being undone.

He was sure that with what was about to happened, sooner than later he, along with Felicity whether she liked it or not, would be summoned to Russia by the Bratva pakhan himself. And Oliver didn't like it one bit. Did not want Felicity totally sucked into his Bratva life. But what could he do at this point, the us, as Felicity had pointed out, he and she, had evolved into an us, a they. All he could do was to protect what had become his without him knowing it. And protect her he would.

Oliver was finally pulled out if his reverie when the car came to a halt in front of the steps of the hotel that was playing host to the gala. As anticipated, the paparazzi were out in full force.

He turned once again to Felicity and caught her fidgeting. Despite her earlier bravo she was a nervous wreck not because of the danger that was ahead but because of the scrutiny she was to come under being with Oliver Queen.

"Ready?"

"No."

Oliver raised a brow at Felicity in question to her one word answer.

"I didn't expect so much press present."

And that was what she was worried about? Oliver almost shook his head in disbelief but instead took the opportunity to talk her out of the plan one last time.

"I can do this," and once again Felicity proved how awesome she was as she gathered her resolve.

They had been in the gala for almost two hours now. Felicity had been a real trooper having braved both the press and the upper crust of Starling City society who had seen it fit to take her measure.

Thankfully Oliver had been true to his word never leaving her side even once. To everyone who bothered and they did bother, Oliver Queen was nothing but a committed and attentive date to Felicity who was clearly overwhelmed by the splendor that surrounded her.

A few had tried to rattle her, but Felicity had shown that she was at her best when she was pushed to a wall as Oliver himself discovered during the days he had been with her.

He allowed himself a measure of pride seeing her hold her own.

At the same time, he had been vigilant. Never lowering his guard against an expected appearance by Karpov. This was after all for his benefit after all. John and the other Bratva men had been holding their position.

And it finally happened, just as Oliver and Felicity exited the gala and started to descend the steps of the hotel, two cars, not just one drove by and it all happened in slow motion. At least in Oliver's mind as the windows lowered and baby uzis were pointed at them and started shooting indiscriminately hoping to hit the victim they intended, Oliver Queen and whomever he was with which meant Felicity Smoak was equally in danger.

Without even a thought, Oliver pulled Felicity down the steps and used his body as a shield.

He could hear Felicity's scream of terror because glass was breaking around them and if not for the carefully planned defense by Oliver's bratva group, both he and Felicity would have been sitting ducks and very dead already.

But his Bratva reinforcements had executed as precisely as they could have. Opening fire in retaliation as one of Oliver's bullet-ptoof SUV's rammed the steps of the hotel finally blocking Oliver and Felicity from the gunmen's aim.

After the smoke had cleared, five Bratva men were dead including their leader Karpov who was identified subtly by both John and Oliver since they weren't to know of the Russian and the mafia.

The cover story was clear and simple, Oliver Queen as only surviving member of the Queen fortune and CEO of QC was the intended victim probably business rivals who had to gain from his death. Felicity Smoak was but an innocent caught in the crossfire.

While the plan was successful, it took them two hours to be cleared to leave the scene since both Oliver and Felicity had been treated on site via an ambulance that was immediately dispatched to the scene.

That, plus the presence of the paparazzi had made it their business to take shot after shot of the mayhem. A couple of media outlets had even video of the actual gunfight, which was now playing repeatedly as breaking news.

One other thing that had been confirmed according to the press was that Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak where indeed an item. It was for the world to see how Oliver had almost never left Felicity's side throughout the ordeal forever immortalized in video. While the paparazzi failed to capture hugs and kisses, because there were none. They had made their own conclusions and believed in them as truth.

If only the press had access inside the Mansion or at least the driveway of the Queen Mansion then they would have had the money shot. The one that had Oliver carrying Felicity, bridal style, with her cuddled up to the crook between his neck and shoulder in deep slumber.

* * *

While the world was reporting this, someone in Russia was following the events very carefully.

Oliver answered the call on the second ring since was too wired to sleep and was just sitting up in bed staring at the dark.

"Оliver, пришло время для посещения . Я буду ждать вас в течение двух дней . О, и принести симпатичную Felicity. I would love the meet the woman who has captured your stone cold heart. And don't deny it. Things like this I know."

With an abrupt click, the call was ended and with it, any attempt by Oliver for shuteye.

He carefully maneuvered his frame out of the bed careful not to wake Felicity who had woken when he first laid her down on the bed and whispered a request he couldn't refuse her when she asked him to stay.

He had to think. Everything was changing now. His world was evolving. Not only because forces within the Bratva in his city had made a power play and failed but because for the first time in a very long time, there was someone in his life that he couldn't afford to loose, Felicity. He now had a weakness.

It was unthinkable now for him to just let her resume her old life and have her walk away, for her sake and for his. It was déjà vu again. Like the first time he had unconsciously decided to have her in his life by 'promoting' her within QC.

Now he was pulling her irrevocably into his life with the Russian trip. Because when the Bratva pakhan ordered him to bring Felicity, there was no choice to be made.

* * *

"Упрямая женщина!" – Stubborn Woman!

Оliver, пришло время для посещения . Я буду ждать вас в течение двух дней . О, и принести симпатичную Felicity. - Oliver, it's time for a visit. I'll be expecting you in two days. Oh, and bring the lovely Felicity.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Notes: We are pass the half-way mark with this story, just three more chapters left after this one. If I'm able to post one every week then we will have this story complete by the week Arrow is back from it's break.**

 **If you've seen the last episode (sorry for the spoiler if you haven't), you know Bratva is coming maybe before the end of S4 or maybe by S5. Like i've said in the past, bratva Oliver is my favorite so woot woot!**

 **As usual a big thank you to y'all for the reviews, comments, likes, favorite, follows, reblogs and more.**

 **Would love those comments and reactions please, now is the time to send me the love...so I know all of you are still with me enjoying the story as much as I enjoyed and labored writing it.**

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 **Crossing my fingers that this would be a good one for y'all.**

* * *

 **FIRE AND ICE**

 **Chapter 7 – Maneater**

John sat down on the empty seat facing Oliver in the QC corporate jet that was taking them to Russia. Despite hearing John's movement, Oliver chose to ignore his right hand man and just continued his penetrating stare on Felicity's form that was currently lying prone on the bench seat of the plane beside Raisa.

QC's corporate jet had on board John and Lyla Diggle as well as Raisa traveling with Oliver who were all making the trip with him as they usually did together except this time there was one more passenger with them, Felicity.

It had taken Oliver quite some time to explain then convince Felicity to come with. He had never had to work so hard to convince someone to take trip with him maybe because he never had the inclination to in the past. Not that he wanted to have Felicity in Russia because that was the dead last place he's want her to be in given what had transpired the last few weeks but truly, he had no choice in the matter. Neither did she.

He recalled his hesitation to even broach the subject with her two mornings ago. The timing was off. She had just been through another harrowing experience. Had stared death in the face once again because of him.

And to be fair, her argument was valid. She had nothing to do with the Bratva. Oliver had clearly told her a few days back that from then on, her business would be QC and only QC. The other stuff, she wasn't a part of.

But he knew, as did she that there was no escaping it all. Oliver had come clean and finally told her about his Bratva connection that afternoon at her apartment when they first arrived back at Starling City. Including his most guarded moments that even John wasn't aware of.

He hadn't intended to, but it had come so easy once he started. Sharing a part of him with her had come easy and in the end he felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off his shoulders.

Again he marveled at the woman who had unknowingly become an integral part of his life.

The fear he had experienced, with her lying down beneath him while bullets flew at the steps of the hotel entrance was unparalleled. It was raw and it was real. He knew at that moment, if something had not gone according the plan and a monumental clusterfuck resulted, he would readily give his life up for her.

She had touched something inside of him that had him agreeing to everything she requested including staying with her inside her bedroom in his house that night Karpov was killed.

Though appearing in control and composed all throughout the ordeal, once she had been aware that she was now safe and inside the mansion with Oliver tucking her in her assigned bed inside his Mansion she had held on to his wrist and whispered her silent request for him to stay with her, at least for that night.

And again, he could not say no to her.

So when she argued that she wasn't a part of his Bratva life, he had no choice but to amend his earlier statement and be totally honest with her. While she technically wasn't Bratva, she was by association to him a part of it after the Karpov incident. Anyone and everyone who had beef with him as Bratva Captain would be gunning for her. She firmly had a target on her back. That it had been the biggest regret of his life. But there was no going back.

The Bratva organization leadership in Bratva had summoned him, summoned them, because in their eyes, they was an us, that Oliver Queen was in a relationship with Felicity Smoak. Despite being very dead, Karpov had opened a can of worms by targeting Felicity Smoak too.

So here they were now with Felicity reluctantly on her way to Russia because while she was still confused about almost everything, why her life had taken a one-eighty degree turn when she was offered a higher position within QC courtesy of Oliver. Then followed another one-eighty with the Bratva. While she was still getting used to that, still reeling from everything Oliver had revealed to her back in her apartment about what the Bratva was and what it stood for. She was also discovering new emotions, all of them directed toward Oliver.

It was scary, it was bound to be bumpy, even more life-threatening, death-defying even, but somehow she knew she had already jumped in with two feet long ago.

John had just observed his friend observing a sleeping Felicity for a few minutes until he finally interrupted Oliver's melancholy, "she'll win them over just like she has with everyone back in Starling City. You needn't worry about that."

Oliver sighed deeply, he really could only be himself, share his doubts and insecurities with a person he trusted in his life, "I never should have pulled her into this. I've never had the urge to do it before. But with her, I wasn't even thinking. Not about the consequences, not about the danger, how the Bratva could affect her." Oliver shook his head as he clenched his fists in remembrance.

"If she really didn't want this, you and I both know that you and me both couldn't have convinced her. I've said it before the woman has a warrior's soul. I reckon Anatoli would embrace her the way he embraced you."

"Maybe that's what I'm afraid of. If Anatoli does take to her, then that's it. The Bratva would be her life too. She deserves more."

John looked at his friend, really took a good look at his friend and had a sudden realization, "my god, she made you reevaluate your future! You finally stopped living in the now and could see a sliver of what tomorrow could be like with her."

Oliver frowned at his friend and take sometime to trace back the conversation they were having then it finally hit him too, John was right. That was why he was so unbalanced, why he felt unhinged. For the first time, he could see beyond today. And it was both scary and exciting.

* * *

"You'll be using your old room Oliver," Raisa told him before she turned to Felicity with what only could be described as a smile filled with warmth. "Your room is next to Oliver's. I thought it would make you more comfortable to be near someone familiar. Your bags have already been brought up earlier. If the Queen Mansion was big this one is even bigger but only a few of the trusted men are allowed inside the main house. Dinner is in fifteen minutes you know Anatoli doesn't want to be kept waiting."

Raisa squeezed Felicity's hand one last time and gave Oliver a loaded look before she stepped away. Just when she reached the end of the private hallway she turned back, "oh and Oliver, Vladimir informed me that a few changes have been recently added to your room," mirth clearly visible on Raisa's face before she turned around again.

With a final frown at the retreating figure of the woman Oliver also considered his second mother, Oliver stepped forward to open the door to Felicity's room with the intension to check out how secure the room was.

Felicity followed him inside her room her eyes on him as he meticulously checked the windows and spent sometime inside her en suite bathroom and walk-in closet before he finally stopped in the middle of the room with a frown marring his features as he spotted another door.

Without even looking at her he strode toward the mysterious door and pulled it open. His first reaction was quickly camouflaged when he realized it led to his room, a room that had been refitted recently to fit the changing times. Apparently the changing times included a connecting door.

Sometimes Anatoli's sense of humor was just over the top.

Oliver touched the doorframe and his careful eye noted that the carpentry work was recent, maybe as recent as two days ago when Oliver first got Anatoli's call.

Felicity had followed him through the door curious as he was and at her recognition of where the door led to he heard a gasp.

"Thi…..this is your room? It's your room," answering her own question since by then she had spotted Oliver's luggage.

And because Felicity had it innate in her, she quickly recovered and was treading toward a bunch of framed photos on one side of the room.

Oliver sighed as he recognized what caught her attention. It was his same reaction when he first entered her bedroom in her apartment making a beeline for a photo that showed Felicity with her mother.

The photos were the only captured memories he had of his family. He had spent a lot of hours locked in this very room just staring at them. When he finally left to restart his life in Starling he left the photos behind because Russia felt like home and Starling felt so distant. He wanted the memories preserved in Russia. When he left for Starling he had vowed to himself that the old Oliver that Starling knew would be gone forever just like each and every member of his family. The Oliver that returned like a prodigal son would be a hardened, no nonsense, stone-cold version.

Knowing that Felicity would appreciate this insight into his past, he found himself making his way toward her already speaking.

"That's my little sister, Thea."

Felicity bent down a little to get a closer look seeing some resemblance between a girl maybe around ten and a teenage version of Oliver before her attention was diverted to another set of framed pictures.

"My parents, Robert and Moira." Oliver simply said sadness clearly distinct in his voice.

Felicity took a few more seconds on the third photo, the Queen family with a newly born Thea in Moira's arms and Robert circling his arms around his wife and his son Oliver.

She turned around to face Oliver feeling like they were kindred spirits. They had both lost people in their young lives. Family. She found herself lifting a hand to his cheek.

At first contact Oliver's pulse shot up, with just a touch. He leaned into her palm and closed his eyes once again consumed with the knowledge that this was so right. He sharing a deep and buried part of himself with her in his most private sanctum.

In the next second he found himself grabbing her cheeks gently and leaning in slowly, ever so slowly probably giving her enough time to react in case she wanted to step away until finally his lips touched hers and what followed was a burst of emotion. He would later describe it as his heart expanding with emotion.

What started slow and cautious quickly become passionate when Oliver brushed his tongue against Felicity's lips and she parted her lips to allow him entry soon after.

Oliver didn't know what happened or how it happened, only that Felicity's back was now against the wall in his bedroom and he was firmly pressed into her and leaving a trail of kisses from her cheek to her neck before capturing her mouth once again.

He tasted and teased and he felt, really felt. This was his heaven, right here.

He pulled her even closer if it was even possible as her hands sneaked up and around his neck rubbing the back of it sending more chills down his spine.

A gong sounded from what seemed like a distance, a sound that Oliver was very familiar with since he lived there for ten years. It signaled that dinner was ready and all were to gather in the great hall. But most importantly, it was meant to remind everyone that Anatoli didn't want to be kept waiting so against his every cell he pulled away from Felicity who was shocked he dared to do what he just did, stop kissing her that is.

Both of them were breathing hard and trying to catch their breaths but Oliver recovered first intent on assuring her that all was well and he didn't regret the kiss. That in fact there was a lot he wanted to say but there was no time. So instead he settled for something he hoped would be enough for now.

"Felicity….," his palm was caressing her check so tenderly, "dinner is ready but we will continue this later, "the kissing and maybe…," Oliver tried to tell her with his eyes what he wanted but couldn't put in words. God, when did he turn back into a schoolboy! "But we also need to talk, I think you deserve to know what this is," he said gesturing between them.

Felicity could only nod as speech failed her with the compounding levels of emotions she was feeling. Like she would combust any moment now because that kiss was wow! It was finally clear to her, if it hadn't been yet because following a man into the unknown, choosing to be unsafe wasn't the biggest indication, she was at the beginning of falling.

She was too caught up in her inner musings that she didn't catch what Oliver was saying until the last part.

"…freshen up then I'll knock on your door in five minutes or you can just use this," Oliver had already walk them toward the connector bedroom doors and leaned in one last time to give her a soft kiss because he just wanted to and he could. He was at a good place.

* * *

"Oliver my boy, it's been a longtime." An old but very fit man who was almost a foot smaller than Oliver greeted warmly as Oliver eagerly strode forward and gave the older man a warm hug.

"It's been almost a year, I should have visited earlier but between the Bratva and getting Queen Consolidated back on track….."

Anatoli smiled tapping Oliver's back twice, "I raised a good man. You are taking your responsibilities seriously and I've been getting positive feedback, mostly?" The last word was phrased as a question given what had happened recently with Dmitri Karpov. No use hiding or downscaling that, Anatoli did not become pakhan because he wasn't shrewd and all knowing.

"We will have time to discuss that at length later," Oliver reminded his almost second father, "right now," Oliver stepped aside to reveal a rather nervous Felicity who was holding on to Oliver's hand like her life depended on it.

Felicity was finally able to take a proper and unobstructed view of Anatoli Knyazev and while she was hesitant to do anything at all Anatoli surprised both of Oliver and her when he just as zealously embraced Felicity exhibiting a wide toothpaste smile.

"Such a beauty Oliver and I hear brains too. I have heard many beautiful things, wonderful things my dear. на сделает прекрасный Bratva жена сына." Saying that last part to Oliver who Felicity noticed blushed slightly, maybe he was complimenting Oliver for what she didn't really know but definitely the Russian language was sexy, that was all she cared for.

However Felicity did some blushing herself because of what Anatoli had said about her. The old man was such a nice one. At least for someone who was the head of a brutal and ruthless organization like the Russian mob. Suddenly realizing she was in the presence of the top most leader of the worlds deadliest and most wide-networked organization. Felicity took a noticeable step back intimidated and slightly apprehensive.

Anatoli pouted. He actually pouted, that much Felicity was certain of, all because she had backed away from him.

"He won't bite," Oliver whispered in her ear correctly reading her apprehension.

Biting her lower lip she took a step forward and reached out a hand that was quickly grabbed by Anatoli.

"No need to be afraid, малютка."

Turning back to Oliver, Anatoli said, "come, the others are already waiting inside." He then placed a hand to Felicity's back to escort her inside the main dinning hall that Felicity noticed already had Raisa, John and Lyla Diggle as well as three others.

Oliver had made his way toward the three giving the two men warm hugs and was about to lean in and give the woman a kiss on the cheek but the woman had other plans as he tilted Oliver's face so that she could land a peck on his lips all while Anatoli still had his hand on Felicity's back escorting her to a chair to his right.

Even with his back turned he could feel Felicity's eyes on him and could distinguish the almost undecipherable gasp that came from her. He pushed away from the woman and before he had fully turned to Felicity catching the looks of Raisa, Lyla and John, all scolding.

Anatoli had beat him pulling out Felicity's chair so all he could do was take his seat beside Felicity. He tried to catch her eye but Felicity was avoiding him it seemed. After the display earlier, yeah maybe he didn't blame her.

During the next few minutes Anatoli gave his full attention to Felicity engaging her with stories and Felicity seemed to be reacting well to the attention Anatoli was giving her forgetting her earlier uncomfortable moment.

Oliver tried to capture her hand under the table, his attempt to intertwine their fingers was however unsuccessful as Felicity pulled her hand away from his.

Oliver sat slowly simmering during the next hour as talk circled around him.

Seated on Anatoli's left side was Lyla then John was seated right opposite Oliver with Raisa beside John. Viktor, another Bratva Captain like Oliver was now seated beside him while thankfully Krul and Isabel had left, Krul explaining that they had unfinished business to attend to but they would catch up tomorrow and Isabel, well she followed Krul out but continued to give Oliver a look as she exited. No wonder Felicity was ignoring him.

She must be thinking and had concluded that there was something between Oliver and Isabel. And she wouldn't be wrong.

There was, but it was all in the past. And it was all very casual.

It had everything to do with availability and sexual release more than anything else, at least on his part.

He had noticed that Isabel had tried to linger in bed after the act a couple of the last times and that was when Oliver ended it. Well more sought sexual release somewhere else. Any warm body would do.

When he left for Starling City, Isabel had tried to convince him not to leave then failing, to take her with him. Both options were just not possible. It was better this way, he wasn't attached or attracted at all but it looked like Isabel was.

Isabel Rochev taught herself in love with Oliver.

And now, she had caused havoc maybe without even knowing it. She wasn't high enough in the Bratva power tower. And she had caught him by surprise.

At that second Oliver made a decision in his mind, he was going to talk, explain, hell beg Felicity to listen to him tonight, right after dinner.

But alas, Anatoli had beaten him to the punch by offering to show Felicity around the gardens. And maybe because Felicity was still pissed at him she readily accepted.

"Don't worry, малютка. Oliver is like a son to me. I saw what happened earlier and that didn't mean anything. I can see the way you look at Oliver but more importantly I see the way Oliver looks at you. He would never stray from you."

Anatoli directed Felicity toward a fountain surrounded by flowerbeds and greens, "this had always been one of Oliver's favorite spots. His mother, bless her soul, always loved her garden. And Oliver felt closer to her, his family when he was here. After what happened he changed, he became cautious about letting people become close to him. It had made him one of the best Captains we had, the only one who is not of Russian blood."

"Even just from the photos I could see you were different. He treated you differently. You broke down his walls. You made him want a life. You made him feel."

Anatoli stepped away from Felicity and looked at her for almost a full minute before he continued, "in our line of work, feeling is dangerous. It does not benefit us."

Oh God, he was going to dissuade or worst, Felicity thought as she looked around her surroundings. There was only the two of them. She thought, the garden was so beautiful. He wasn't going to kill me here was he? All her apprehension of earlier returned in full force and it must have shown in her face, the fear.

The next second, Anatoli's hand were on her shoulders, pressing them down to get her attention.

"I can read your thoughts малютка. No one is dying tonight, the one who has given Oliver his soul back must live. Must be protected at all cost. I knew this day would come someday." Anatoli said the last part with a degree of regret.

"Go to him. He is waiting for you. Why would you want to spend the evening with an old man like me when you can spend it with someone younger, aye?"

Felicity bit her lip again to hide a smile not wanting to offend the mob boss.

A few minutes later Felicity was excitedly making her way toward Oliver's room and just when she was just a few steps away from his door it opened and what Felicity saw broke her heart.

The woman from earlier was exiting Oliver's room slightly disheveled and still fixing her dress. A second later Oliver appeared from inside his room and his eyes almost popping out of his sockets when he noticed her standing there.

A second later, Felicity found the strength to move. And move away she did. Making her way to her room like the devil himself was after her, and maybe he was.

* * *

 _No! Why did this chapter end this way? Why am I torturing myself and torturing you my readers as well._

 _Wonder what's going to happen in the next installment…anyone up for some smut?_

Translation:

She will make a fine Bratva wife son - на сделает прекрасный BRATVA жена сына

Little one - малютка


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Notes: It's happening! SMUT chapter so if you don't want it...skip the chapter, as if.**

 **I don't have anything else to say but hope you like it!**

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 **Would love those comments and reactions please, now is the time to send me the love...so I know all of you are still with me enjoying the story as much as I enjoyed and labored writing it.**

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 **Crossing my fingers that this would be a good one for y'all.**

* * *

 **Chapter 8**

 **Kiss On My List**

Felicity reached her door, made sure it was locked then slumped down on the floor defeated. Her heart crushed.

She waited for tears to come but none came. She was numb.

This was how it felt like. Just minutes ago she was eagerly making her way toward her future only to comprehend that maybe they were not on the same page. That maybe she misread.

Going back earlier to Oliver's statement and remembering he wanted them to talk about what was between them tonight before that bitch, wait maybe she was being totally unreasonable, maybe she really wasn't a bitch in the eyes of Oliver. Maybe the reason why Oliver had kept an almost pristine image and abandoned his playboy one of yesteryears was because he had a woman waiting for him, in Russia.

Felicity kept torturing herself. She couldn't help it. She thought she had found the man to finally open up her heart to. That she had found that someone who would finally love her back.

She had her head bent between her knees were they folded touching her chest.

Felicity gave a little jump as she heard what sounded like someone trying to turn the knob on her door then a moment later a quiet knock.

"Felicity, please open the door. We need to talk."

No. Felicity answered, at least in her mind. She wasn't ready for this confrontation. Not when he was about to repeatedly step on her already crushed heart.

It was enough that she had seen with her own eyes that she was under a gigantic delusion about her and Oliver. As always, she jumped forward into the unknown with two feet forward and fell flat on her face.

After a minute of Oliver alternating between knocking and faintly calling out her name with Felicity detecting a hint of desperation in his voice or maybe she just wanted it to sound like desperation, she heard fading footsteps.

Oliver left, he just left just like that. Another round of depression hit Felicity as tears finally fell.

Oliver made his way back to his room. His pent up frustration driving him to pick up an 18th century vase and threw it across the hallway not really caring that it probably cost hundreds and thousand of dollars before he entered his room and started to pace.

He couldn't think straight, no he qualified, he couldn't think period. His fingers had carded through his hair countless of times as he continued to pace until he spotted the door and paused.

How could he forget that there was a connecting door! He should have thought about that first but then again logic totally escaped him, pounding his head with his fists in frustration as now he was faced with another dilemma.

What to say to her, to Felicity.

The look on her face when she saw Isabel walking out of his room then seeing him, his whole world crashed at the way she looked at him. A mix of hurt, betrayal, disappointment, sadness, all the whirlwind of emotions that made him feel the worst he had in his entire life.

He had done nothing wrong, nothing at all. But he felt the sting of guilt anyway.

He should had pushed Isabel away the first time when she tilted his face to shift what was a respectful and innocent cheek kiss he initiated into a more meaningful lip kiss just before dinner.

He exhaled heavily remembering the surprise that awaited him once he reached his room.

 _At first he didn't notice the presence of another inside the room. He was still feeling sorry for himself because Felicity continued to ignore him in favor of Anatoli because of that Isabel kiss._

 _When from the corner of his eye he finally noticed a movement he went into his bratva mode, ready to kill or be killed._

 _At the next second he registered someone purring his name, actually purring it and the hairs in the back of his neck stood up. This shouldn't be happening. He recognized that purr, it never really did anything to him before and it would never do anything to him now except make him even more irritated by the havoc that she had brought into his present life._

 _"What the hell are you doing here!" He didn't plan to mince words or even try to help her salvage some of her pride._

 _"Oh come on Oliver, you never said no to me before. Even when you tried to avoid me that last time it wasn't because you didn't want me. It was because I wanted more than you could give me. "_

 _Isabel sat up, the blanket falling to her waist exposing her entire naked upper body to Oliver and revealed even more of her bare body as she repositioned herself on her knees in the middle of Oliver's bed._

 _"I've missed you and if it had not been for the pakhan being present earlier I would have done more than just given you a peck. I wasn't even aware that you have come back home. I've almost lost hope that you would."_

 _She started to crawl to the edge of the bed and tried to reach out a hand to Oliver who finally stepped back before she could reach him, "Oliver please." She cried desperately._

 _Oliver looked anywhere but at her. He had thought this was over, that he had been clear that nothing was ever going to go on between them beyond what happened in the past. His actions before he left for Starling City should have been enough indication of the way he felt._

 _As much as he wanted to be sympathetic and be gentleman enough to the woman who pathetically pleaded with him, the damage she had done and will do if Felicity gets wind of this would be irreparable._

 _So he faced the music and confronted Isabel. "I'm sorry. I thought I've been more than clear with you. This is never going to happen. It's over. You were never ever anything other than….available," he shook his head in emphasis._

 _A naked Isabel jumped from the bed and made for Oliver, a look of even more desperation on her face. "No, no that's not true. You wanted me. The soldiers knew it. The men knew it that's why they kept away from me because of you. Even the pakhan knew it. When you left it devastated me but I accepted it because I knew you needed to do this. It was for your legacy as a Queen. I even supported you when you told me you couldn't bring me with you. But I knew, I knew that one day you'd be back. You'd be back for me."_

 _A naked Isabel grabbed Oliver and flung her body around his attempting to use her body to tempt him once more as it did in the past._

 _As much as he didn't want to further damage Isabel's state, once and for all he wanted her to not only understand but accept that there would never be any scenario that they would be together and this was what spurred him on as he grabbed her hands firmly and pushed her gently away from him, bending down to grab her dress and throw it at her before he even spoke._

 _"Get dressed."_

 _"But," Isabel caught her dress and frowned at his abrupt manner. Oliver had always been intense and cold but he had always treated her better than that._

 _"We should talk but I won't do it with you parading around the way you are. Don't go down to this level. You've always been better. Don't be like this."_

 _In the end, words had been said. Feelings had been hurt. But even after everything that had been spoken, he could discern that they had turned a corner. They understood each other on a level they never have._

 _With one last embrace that was meant to convey the end of a chapter, Isabel tried to tame her locks by carding her fingers through them while she made her way toward the bedroom door. With one last heavy exhale she turned the knob and stepped out of the bedroom only to face an unknown woman who she could clearly perceive was confused by what she had seen._

 _Without even acknowledging the woman, Isabel marched away and never looked back._

Now, Oliver was but a step away from the door connecting his room to Felicity's, his hand on the knob still contemplating his words.

It took him a few seconds to place her since the room was dark. She was still seated on the floor, her back to the wall of her door. And everything was quiet.

"Felicity?" he said quietly conscious that he was probably violating some unsaid rule of keeping his distance while she was still recovering from…was it shock?

No answer. Everything remained still and quiet.

He called her name again, this time a little louder and heard her stir. She had fallen asleep, maybe in exhaustion. It had been quite a day and he probably contributed to the fatigue she felt.

He dared to step a little closer to her but still kept a respectable distance.

"Oliver?" A little voiced asked, then as if what happened earlier was all coming back to her now, she said her next words in stronger words. "Don't you dare come any closer!"

"Felicity please, I just want to explain what happened earlier. That's all I came to do. Just explain."

"I don't think I want to hear it. I don't think now is the time. I'm tired."

"Okay," Oliver said after almost a minute. On one hand, he wanted this to be over and done with not wanting the night to pass with them in that place of doubt between them. On the other hand, he didn't want to force her if she really was worn-out. She wouldn't be able to think clearly anyway.

"I just can't take anymore, not from you," exhaustion clear in her voice. "Just before we went down to dinner everything was perfect then, then….."

"It didn't mean anything. She didn't mean anything. Nothing happened. When I entered my room she was already there but I kicked her out. There is only one woman for me, that's you Felicity." Oliver went for the opening Felicity gave him.

"But at some point, before, when you lived here, you and she?"

"Yes," there was no avoiding answering her question and Oliver didn't want to lie to her, although he didn't want it to just be a yes or no answer so he continued. "She wasn't the only one. There were others. But all of them were just…..you were different. You are different."

At her silence, he continued spurred on by his own passion to share with her what was in his heart.

"Before I met you, I had a plan. There was the Bratva and there was me reclaiming my legacy as the only surviving member of my family. In both, I've always envisioned myself to be alone. Not lonely, but alone. I just couldn't see my own future, much less a future with someone. But then you happened. You were unexpected."

Oliver felt comfortable enough to sit on the floor although he made sure to keep at least two feet between them before he continued.

"You made me realize I wanted more, a life, a wife, children, a family. I wanted everything."

He scooted over, daring to reach for her hands. He started to rub his thumbs across her knuckles before he continued.

"My want was because of you. Only you. I wanted everything with you." Oliver's voiced cracked as he said those three sentences.

Felicity's breath caught. She had been listening intently to everything he said, Anatoli's words echoing in her brain. Could she? Could she give her heart to this man? Hadn't she already given her heart to him without her actually mouthing the words yet.

"Felicity?"

Oliver asked unsure since she continued to not say a word.

"I need time. A day. Can you give me a day? Maybe everything is finally catching up with me. This life I'm now a part of." Felicity pulled her hands away from Oliver and rubbed her face.

Oliver sighed. Of course he would give her anything she asked for. She deserved it after all. His determination to not loose her before he even had her however egged him on.

"Are we okay? You and I?"

Felicity looked at him, it was dark in the room. He could barely make out the expression on her face if not for the shadows the moonlight had cast.

"Yes, I think? After all we've been through we can never not be okay. Even if it's only as friends."

Friends. Oliver dreaded that term even after he had said the same thing to Isabel just earlier. About them just being friends. That's all he was willing to give her. Now that it was Felicity saying that 'F' word, he felt his world tumbling.

He just couldn't see himself 'just friends' with her. Not with her.

" _Friend_." Oliver couldn't help himself as he tested out the word.

"Maybe, right?" Felicity let out a hollow laugh. "Just please. You said what you needed to say. I listened. It's close to midnight. I'm tired. You're tired. Maybe I'm not thinking right with this friend thing but maybe everything will be clearer in the morning. Or maybe it won't. Just please go."

Even in the dark Felicity could tell he was giving her one of his penetrating stares. She had to look away.

In the next second she felt the rustle of movement as Oliver lifted his hand to her cheek, thumbing her right one then he leaned in and gently kissed her temple lingeringly.

"Goodnight Felicity. Sleep well." He then willed himself to drift away from her and walk back to his room closing the connecting door hoping in the process he wasn't closing the door to a future with her.

Oliver and John were in the thick of the action. A Bratva cleanup was going down tonight shaking up their ranks and renewing loyalties.

It was one of the moves that were necessary after the Karpov incident. Anatoli was a believer in nipping a rebellion in the bud. And that was happening tonight.

After Oliver had left Felicity's room, he had made his way to seek out Anatoli and John who he knew would be in the thick of discussions about the Bratva. This wasn't how Oliver originally thought he would be spending his night. No, he had planned on spending it with Felicity showing her how much she meant to him in many ways.

* * *

Now four hours later, he was bloodied, not his. Bratva blood had been spilled tonight. It was unavoidable since the rebellion refused to yield.

A team of the Bratva suicide squad was dispatched as was the norm, but with too much energy and no outlet to channel it to, Oliver had insisted to be a part of the team forcing John to also throw in his hat.

Anatoli just shook his head. He knew Oliver enough to know he would not back down. All Anatoli did was to squeeze the shoulder of the younger man, understanding clear between them with Anatoli promising to keep an eye on Felicity because the pakhan stayed behind. Street fights like this one did not require his appearance.

John had told his wife that he would be on a Bratva mission with Oliver. Unlike other Captains, Oliver's badge as Bratva Captain carried more weight. Aside from him being the only Captain without a drop of Russian blood running through his veins, he was known as the pakhan's adopted son and heir apparent. The Bratva's future leader.

For this alone, John needed to keep the Bratva's king-in-waiting safe. Not only because it was his responsibility but because Oliver was a brother. They had each other's back for several years already and tonight wouldn't be any different.

Lyla for her part decided to test the waters with Felicity. She had seen what had happened earlier with her own eyes. Truth was, she had liked Isabel. She was one of the bravest women operatives the Bratva had. She did her job well. She was dependable.

But she also fell in love with a man who couldn't love. That had been when things started to get messy for her because Oliver Queen did not love. He didn't really have any deep emotions unless they fueled his revenge of the family he had lost.

While Lyla could argue that Isabel was a victim of her own refusal to accept her non-existent role beside Oliver. She really thought the last year had taught Isabel that it was useless to pine for a man who only saw her as an object and nothing more.

Tonight, Lyla had felt sorry for Isabel. She was a woman too after all and no one wanted to see another hurting. But that was before John had left and had shared a few insights with her about what had gone down after dinner and the fall-out of that.

It was the reason Oliver was highly-strung tonight. It was the reason why John wasn't with Lyla tonight but instead out with the man he considered his brother.

It was almost three in the morning but both Felicity and Lyla were still up, mostly talking. The conversation jumping from one topic to another until Lyla touched on how John and Oliver had met.

She started by telling Felicity about John and her history. Both of them being Army. That was how they had met and how they started their relationship.

A few years after, both of them decided they wanted to get out of the Army, thinking of a future together. Lyla left first and joined the CIA.

It was in one of her earlier missions that she landed in Russia with other CIA operatives. Her team had been compromised and she had to go underground or face death because one the members of the team had turned traitor and shifted alliance.

John had still been in the army. The moment he heard of Lyla's disappearance via the underground ops network, he had left for Russia without a plan. He wasn't even being covert asking around. His actions brought him to the attention of the Bratva who somehow was in the mix with Lyla's CIA mission.

John was captured, tortured for information for several days. He stood firm with his story. He was just one man who was looking for the love of his life in a foreign country.

The Bratva was skeptical. They should be. It was their nature to be.

John's resistance led to the first meeting between him and Oliver Queen.

Oliver had listened to John's impassioned tale. Reviewed the bratva intelligence report. Verified some facts. And in the end challenged John to a one-on-one physical combat that had left John who was already weak from the beatings at deaths door.

It was then that he whispered to Oliver that whatever happened to him. He wanted Oliver to promise him that he would do everything in his power to find this Lyla, rescue her and tell her that he loved her and that he was sorry he couldn't be there with her.

A man who was just a few breaths away from certain death keeping himself lucid enough just to get what was probably his last words across, a man like that couldn't be lying. Oliver already made that conclusion even before he challenged the dark skinned man to a fight. But he had to be certain.

It took two-days to have John nursed back to a level were he could be useful. The Bratva doctors had been dispatched to tend to the American.

Anatoli had just raised a brow but had not dared to interfere with Oliver's plan.

Three nights later they were on a rescue mission, Oliver with his bratva men and John.

They had rescued Lyla and another member of her CIA team. Both were badly bruised but alive. Both had been captured and tortured for information by Russian operatives affiliated with the Chinese Triad.

Being sworn enemies and known competitors in the underground world, the rescue of Lyla Michaels was also a victory for the bratva against the triad in the ongoing battle of dominating the underground.

After what had gone down, Lyla had resigned from the CIA as had John from the Army. They took a couple of months off to get married and have a proper honeymoon but had come back to Russia offering their services and loyalty to Oliver Queen and by extension, the bratva.

"It's been six years now. John had climbed the ranks and had become Oliver's right hand man for three years now. While he wasn't a captain like Oliver, John had gained the respect of the bratva captains. He had also gained the trust of the pakhan who had entrusted Oliver's life into the hands of John. "

"I've seen that friendship, that brotherhood between them." Felicity commented.

"And maybe it isn't my place to say, but Oliver is my friend. And in the short time I have known you, I also consider you equally a friend," Lyla paused before she continued. "So as a friend, I have to say this even if it is unsolicited, people who are meant to be together don't always follow the traditional path or even the unwritten rule of measure of time it takes for one to know that person is the one."

Felicity shifted, she sat up crossed legged and held a pillow in front of her while Lyla continued.

"I've seen the change in Oliver. Everyday that you have been with him, he becomes more human. More the man he was probably meant to be all along. Both John and I will never forget what he had done for the both of us. Given us a future we probably wouldn't have had, had he not stepped in when he did."

Lyla squeezed Felicty's hand before she continued.

"I've also seen the way you look at him. It takes one woman to know the look a woman gives everytime she sees the man who owns her heart. This trip has been good because it allowed you to see a part of Oliver and his bratva family. This is a part of him that only a few are given a glimpse of. And despite what happened earlier with Isabel, that also had to play out. Now in both his lives, whether in his Starling City QC CEO one or his bratva captain one, everyone will have no doubt in the space you occupy. It's right beside him. He may not have said it. He is after all a man of few words. But he cares very deeply for you."

"I know." Felicity simply said and she truly believed that.

Long after Lyla had left her, Felicity had continued to pace her bedroom floor. Dressed in her sleep shorts and top, her mind was preoccupied with intertwined voices of Anatoli, Lyla and Oliver.

She knew deep down inside Isabel had just been a stumbling block, an irrelevant one if she were to believe Oliver in her path to finding her one and if Oliver had been 100% sincere with his declaration earlier, his journey to find his everything in her as well.

She knew had it not been for the woman trying to drive a wedge between them, she would have been with Oliver the entire night and that they would definitely not have been talking. Or clothed for that matter.

She would have probably already had the best sex in her short life because, her assistant was right, Oliver was hot. He was also gifted down there. She should know, she had it pressed against her that first night they slept together naked. Just slept.

She heard footsteps in the hallway. The hallway she knew that contain only her and Oliver's quarters. That meant he was back from the bratva mission.

Taking one very deep breath, her resolve was made. She would end what she begun to do earlier but this time she hoped there would be no more surprises.

She would go to her future.

She spotted him first because he seemed distracted. And bloody. Was that his blood? Felicity almost ran to him in panic. Oliver finally realized there was someone else in the hallway and hope it wasn't a repeat of earlier. He was finally, really exhausted.

It was Felicity.

This time it was Oliver who took a step back. He had just finished a bratva mission. He knew what he looked like. A killer. And this was not how he wanted her to see him.

But still she moved forward. Unfazed by his appearance.

Finally just a step away in front of him, she reached out a hand and used her thumb to wipe a speck of blood from his face. And God, just like that he fell even more for her.

"This doesn't scare you?" He had to ask.

"I've seen worse remember," was Felicity's answer and yes she did she worst. Half of the time they had been together, he had been bloodied or dirty because of bratva business.

Her palm was now pressed against his cheek and he forgot everything else but the warmth she brought, his home. His everything.

"I thought you needed time. You wanted to be alone?" Oliver pressed.

"I thought I wanted that. But then I realized I wanted something more. I've wanted something for sometime now." Felicity said cryptically.

Oliver's eyes were on her not daring to ask his question out loud, it barely was a whisper, "what is it?"

Felicity bit her lip, her eyes locking with his, "it isn't a what, its a who. I want you. What you said earlier. About having something else planned but then something redirects you toward a path you were meant to be in. I think, no I believe we were meant to meet. Something was driving me toward QC. I wasn't even suppose to be there that day you walked into the IT department of QC It was my day-off but I got called in. I was meant to be part of this crazy life with you."

Oliver forgot to breathe. This was everything he wanted. Everything he wished for, prayed for.

She pulled him forward by his arm, "but first thing first, let's get you cleaned up."

They started for his bedroom but midway Felicity changed her mind remembering who had been inside his room earlier. Even if nothing happened, she didn't want the memory of it clouding what was going to happen.

She sat him down on her bed, telling him she would get a washcloth to clean him up and even before Oliver had time to process what was happening she was back and was already wiping the blood away were in marked his skin.

A minute later she had both her hands under his shirt, lifting it up over his chest. He didn't even dare move in the slightest except lift his arms to assist her undressing him for fear he would break her determination.

He struggled to keep his breathing normal as she meticulously ran the washcloth over his torso, her concentration thorough.

When finally she threw the washcloth on the floor, she took a moment to stare him down then bit her lip again before she straddle him making him automatically reach out for her hips.

Very deliberately, she locked her arms around his neck. Her movement unsure, like she wasn't really used to being the one who teased.

Even before this, Oliver knew Felicity was relatively less experienced in sex. And it suited him fine. He wasn't really proud of his past and he had never been particularly picky about his partners pasts too.

But with Felicity, he liked that she hadn't been with many men before. He wanted to be one of the few she had let explore her body. Hell, after this, he vowed to be the only one she would ever be with.

Much as he wanted to quicken the pace of what was about to happen, he let her take control, at least for the time being. This was Felicity after all.

But the moment she sat her sex over his growing hardness, he couldn't wait anymore.

Pulling her even closer to him, his lips met hers for a bruising kiss. His hand started to wander around, first squeezing her ass, earning a moan from her. Then his hands wandered further north, under her tank top seeking out the underside of her breasts.

Then Felicity did something totally unexpected. She pulled her lips away from his and pushed him backward with her palms sending him on his back on her bed with her still straddling him.

Eyeing him, Felicity tugged the base of her top and pulled it over her head leaving herself bare.

Oliver's hands quickly traveled from her ass to her now exposed breasts but Felicity pulled both his hands off her breasts and on top of his head then started to run her nails down the length of his chest before she leaned down to reclaim his lips.

Dammit, this was heaven. She was his heaven. This was happening and he loved it. Loved it.

He couldn't wait any longer finally taking control as he reversed their positions with one move.

His eyes dilated when he finally took an unhurried look at the woman beneath him. His eyes lingered on her breasts that had already hardened nipples shooting up as if daring him to taste them.

He leaned down to taste one, sucking the tip and giving it his full attention while he used his hand to squeeze the other.

Felicity's fingers were on his hair, alternately pulling it then pushing his head down further on her breast while moaning his name repeatedly.

After transferring his mouth to her other breast, not wanting to deprive it of his attention he started to make his way up but not before capture her right breast again with his teeth and biting gently eliciting a scream from her.

He sucked and bit as he marked a path to her collarbone then transferred his attention to her ear licking the outer skin making Felicity sink her nails on his back most probably drawing blood.

"Felicity say the word if you want to stop. You have to be the one to do it," he whispered desperately in her ear between kisses, "because I don't think I'd be able to at this point. I've wanted this for sometime now."

"I," she paused as she whimpered because Oliver was now licking the back of her ear, "I wanted this too."

All of a sudden, Oliver was yanking Felicity's head back, latching his lips into her neck sucking it like he wanted to leave the biggest hickey ever.

The way he was holding her left her arced awkwardly with her chest rubbing into his sending more friction her way, making her pool in her center.

Clumsily, her fingers trailed down finally finding the zip to his pants as she worked on freeing her prize.

The moment Oliver's cock sprang free he felt the drip of his pre-cum as her fingers traced the vein from its base to its tip. It was rock hard and erect and it was attached to the man who started chanting her name as she continued to stroke it.

"Fuck Felicity, if you don't stop what you're doing right now I'm going to come so hard it's going to be over before we even started." And she believed him because she felt Oliver start to shudder, her eyes focused on the vein throbbing on his neck as he fought for control finally breathing hard and resting his temple on hers with a tortured smile. "Only you can make me loose control."

Felicity pouted, she had never been so bold with anyone before tonight.

"Let me make it up to you," Oliver teased her seeing her pout.

In the next second, he was pulling her sleep shorts together with her underwear down in one sweep as well as pulling his pants all the way down leaving both of them bare.

"Oh God!" she had to scream, with one stroke he used his shoulders to push her legs apart and had started to lick her treasure. He started slow, his pace picking up as if he wanted to time them with her moans, drawing patterns with his tongue alternated with nips and bites before he pushed his tongue to penetrate her even deeper while his thumb started to stoke her bud.

It was music to his ears, the way Felicity was coming undone with just his tongue and thumbs.

She was so wet for him and he reveled at her taste fueling his drive to have her explode so he could savor her sweet nectar.

He inserted two fingers inside herm, curving them while he transferred his lips to her bud. He could feel her getting closer to her orgasm because she started to shudder and whimper even louder. She finally shattered when he inserted one more finger inside of her and he took a full two minutes just lapping on her juices.

He would gladly do this every night if she would let him. This was nirvana for him.

But he didn't have time to think about anything more because Felicity was pulling him up and had her lips locked on his pushing her tongue inside deepening her assault.

"My turn."

What? What just happened? Oliver just realized he was on his back and more importantly she was making her way down his body leaving a trail of very wet kisses.

Felicity finally spotted it and her mouth watered. Her fingers made a gentle grab for his balls playing with them, earning a growl then a grunt from the owner.

Grabbing a hold of his cock, she licked the underside from the base to the tip right where her fingers had been before he had pulled her away the first time. This time however, she was determined to finish what she started as she swirled her tongue several times around the head before it settled on the slit at the tip blowing air into it and making Oliver moan out loud that was almost an obscene scream at the sensation.

God, the woman was going to kill him even before they reached the end! Oliver thought. But then she wasn't done with him. He couldn't help the shudder that coursed through his body as she swallowed him whole. Dammit, he knew he was a lot more than judge average and he'd made some women gagged before they even deep throated him.

He pulled at her neck gently, not wanting to have her hurting in anyway even if he knew her giving him head would be heaven. He felt her slowly retracting every cell in his cock reacting as his body buckled but he was determined to have her pullout. When she did, she did it with an obscene pop.

"Why?" Felicity asked him in a whisper, hurt prominent in her voice.

"You don't have to do that," Oliver simply said as he changed their positions with him now on top and his rock hard cock between them teasing her entrance.

"I know, but I wanted to." Felicity let her hands trace a path to thumb the scruff on his face causing him to close his eyes and push his cock a little inside her warmth.

"Felicity, I want to do this slowly but your making it impossible for me to do this right," he told her between the clenching of his teeth as he struggled to control his reaction.

"Make me yours Oliver, I want to be yours." She said as she pecked his neck before starting to suck it.

"You are," he answered his voice strangely buttery because he definitely did not do sweet or buttery. "Just like I am yours Felicity. Yours. Look at me, I want you to look at me as I make you mine," he humped twice as the tip of his cock slide further inside of her eliciting another moan from her, "Felicity, look at me," he grabbed her faced determinedly as he entered her with one full stroke. His eyes intensely locked with hers.

He thrust into her deeply. His hands still firmly on her cheeks more to ensure her eyes stayed locked with his as a swirl of emotions past through them making Oliver's blue irises dilated further with desire.

Felicity let go of Oliver's scruffy cheek as soon as he first entered her and grabbed a hold of his firm back, lifting her legs higher as she was rocked into oblivion.

"Oh God, Oh Oliver!"

Her screams of passion egged him on. No one had him so over the edge before she. If he had wanted her ruined for other men, she had done the job on him too. He would never reach the same heights if he were with another.

She whimpered as he continued to thrust in and out of her hard.

He was almost over the edge but needed her to come before he did, sliding his hand between them making sure his calloused fingers grazed her nipples before they burned a path their final destination.

He alternately pinched and stroked her clit making her see starts and finally sending her over the threshold and not even a second later Oliver followed emptying his load inside of her with one strong surge.

Still breathing hard, Oliver struggled with his speech but was determined to tell her what was in his heart, "you are mine and I am yours. I'm not perfect and I may not be able to give you the life you deserve, a life that is so far away from the blood and gore that follows me. But I swear to you, I will do right by you."

Now recovered, Felicity grabbed Oliver's face and leaned forward to capture his lips telling him in a kiss what was in her heart.

* * *

 _Smut chapter as promised. Almost over, just two more chapters left._


	9. Chapter 9

_**Author's Notes: This is the penultimate chapter as mentioned before. I think ten chapters is the way to go for my Olicity stories since I have so many plot stories running through my brain and a lot of you are giving me story prompts for future fics. Anyway, this story was really structured for just ten chapters and it's definitely winding down but not before a final twist will happen in the last chapter.**_

 _ **This is my second bratva fic and it won't be the last one but for sure, it would be sometime before the next one happens. Maybe Arrow Season 5 would inspire me to write another one, unless you guys demand another one.**_

 _ **I wanna thank all of you readers who appreciated the intention of this story as well as my other ones which admittedly I haven't updated for some time. Sometimes life just catches up on us writers who in the real world have jobs and responsibilities. This doesn't take away from how I appreciate my ultimate OTP and the best way I know how to do that is to write my fics. With vacation time coming, I hopefully would have time to catch up on my unfinished stories.**_

 _ **I will however be traveling the next month, my perfect excuse being am visiting my family back in Australia since I work in Asia.**_

 _ **And finally for the standard disclaimers, I do not own Arrow or the characters, I however would want to exist in that verse.**_

 _ **If you appreciate what you will be reading please drop me a message via any of the following:**_

 _ **Fanfiction via lollipopdiaries**_

 _ **Archive of Our Own via lollipopdiaries**_

 ** _Tumblr via everythinglollipop_**

 ** _Twitter via lollipopsays (lollipopdiaries)_**

* * *

 **FIRE AND ICE**

 **Chapter 9 - When the Morning Comes**

Felicity opened her eyes slowly.

First thing she realized was that she ached, all over. It felt like she ran a marathon or went to an all-nighter gym. It definitely was a feeling Felicity didn't feel often, or ever.

The second thing she realized was that she was naked.

Which now brought her to her third realization. There was an arm firmly around her waist locking her to body, a naked body. A man's body because she just couldn't deny the very erect cock that was pressing against her posterior.

Oliver Queen, flashing back to that time she found herself in the same situation just a few weeks ago. Except this time she wasn't in any hurry to leave the warmth nor did it feel awkward at all, they being skin to skin.

They had blissful sex. No, Felicity corrected herself. They made love. And boy, did they make love!

That was why she was aching all over. Not that she was complaining or would ever complain if there happen to be a repeat any time soon.

She had never felt so revered, so treasured. After that first joining of their bodies Oliver had made love to her two more times, each time exploring every inch of her. Memorizing the patterns of her tells and filing it away in that corner of his brain now reserved solely for her and her alone.

She rubbed her butt on the full mast cock that teased her, more because she could than to illicit a reaction from him.

His response was to pull her even closer, infinitesimally if it were even possible. Like he wanted to envelope her.

The next minute he was nuzzling the back of her ear, sending a wave of electricity across her being. God, this was the best way to fully wake up.

"Good Morning Felicity," Oliver greeted her not quite fully conscious yet.

"Hey," she answered breathlessly before she repositioned herself so now they where face-to-face.

Oliver leaned in to kiss her but Felicity hurriedly pulled away making him frown at her action.

"Morning breath," she whispered as a way of explaining her action while she pulled the blanket up high hiding her lips from him to stress her statement.

All he did was give her one of his sparkly smiles before he pushed her on her back, his naked front firmly on top of her naked self throwing the blanket aside then giving her a very thorough good morning kiss.

Wow. Felicity thought. Dear God, was every morning going to be like this one? Was every night going to be like last night? If his intention was to cloud her brain with images of him and him alone, dammit, he had exceeded his expectations. She really did feel totally, absolutely and completely ravished.

And then the gong sounded. Talk about being cock-blocked or was the more correct term pussy-blocked. Yeah, she had learned to love Anatoli but that gong just had to go. Just when Oliver started to pull away from her lips, she grabbed his lower lip back with her teeth.

And because she was Oliver's wet dream come true, he pushed her back down the bed and proceeded to deepen the kiss again only for them to be interrupted by all things by the growl of her stomach, her pussy-blocking stomach that demanded to be fed.

Oliver pulled away laughing. "We will continue this later. We can spend the whole day in bed if you wish before we fly out tomorrow."

But of course they didn't spend the day in bed.

Oh Oliver had been willing, he had been more than willing. But Felicity being Felicity was the one who put the brakes on that. Not wanting to give Anatoli or everyone else the impression she was sex starved or something.

They would have more than enough time for that back in Starling City. Or at least that was what Felicity told herself.

Truthfully, she was a little miffed because now that Oliver was off the hook so to speak about the spending the whole day in bed thing, he had disappeared behind closed doors with Anatoli who was joined about a couple of hours later by John Diggle.

That left her spending the rest of the mid-afternoon with Lyla and Raisa. Raisa specifically was a blessing. Spending the time showing her hidden treasures of Oliver's youth.

Apparently, Raisa had packed away a few of the Queen memorabilia including old photo albums as well as articles that featured a young Oliver.

She discovered that he apparently had a love for baseball caps in his youth as evidenced by the number of caps he wore during photos. Way back then, he already had a killer smile as well as a sorry excuse for the crop of hair on his head that definitely improved over time. And he was definitely showing his pearly whites a lot. It was more than obvious that he had a happy childhood.

The best ones were the ones that featured his little sister. One picture stood out to her only because it was the exact replica of the one in his room, the one that showed his whole family, probably one of the very last photos featuring the whole Queen clan judging by his sister's age.

Felicity suddenly felt for him. No wonder he became the man he was. One day he was surrounded by the love of family, the next day he was alone in the world. Even if he was in his late teens when it happened, she was sure he felt the full weight of the loss.

The next few years, he was thrust into a life literally and completely opposite of the life of pampered luxury that sprouted a bratty Oliver Queen to one filled with darkness and survival. Sure, Anatoli and Raisa had tried to balance that off, providing some semblance of family. But clearly, the bratva was not an ideal environment to raise a child or a teenager who for the very first time experienced the harsh realities of the world.

This was her life now too. The difference between them was that Oliver hardly had a choice. Well, maybe he did. But from what Oliver shared with her, it wasn't even a probability with the Queen family wiped out. Anatoli by virtue of he being godfather to Oliver, how that happened was another long story altogether, fought and got custody of the young Queen. From Raisa she got the impression that no one really wanted the responsibility of raising the teen.

No, Felicity clearly had a choice. The moment she stepped foot on that plane to Russia with Oliver, she had made that choice with both eyes open.

She could have walked away from all of this, despite the bratva interference early on. But she chose this life. In her subconscious she chose Oliver. She chose the life that included the man her senses screamed for.

She made her bed, so to speak. And slept in it. Loving every moment of it.

The sun was setting by the time her Oliver made an appearance. She should have been pissed with him for leaving her alone to her own devices but surprisingly, she wasn't.

If Oliver was evolving, so was she apparently. Was this her life now? Playing the dutiful girlfriend? Was that what she was? To a bratva captain and CEO of one of the biggest companies in Starling City? Wow, this was her life now. Could she really embrace this life fully?

"Hey," strong arms wrapped around her waist as his lips found the hollow between her shoulder and neck.

A throat cleared behind them," I don't want to interrupt you lovebirds but I was informed by my Captain that time was of the essence as far as a certain ceremony is concerned." Anatoli gazed pointedly at Oliver.

"Ah yes, we will be a minute behind you. I….I just have," Oliver stuttered.

Anatoli patted Oliver's back before he turned to Felicity giving her a warm smile, "this one really wants to build a life with you so much so that he has wrecked havoc on my organization."

"What?" Felicity said confused facing Anatoli , then she turned to Oliver frowing, "what is he talking about?"

"Nothing that concerns you." Oliver told her immediately then backtracked at her expression, "well it does concern you, but as usual Anatoli is just being a tad too dramatic," giving Anatoli a look that had the older man backing away defensively.

"I will see you in ten minutes and not a minute later," Anatoli said as he walked away from them.

"What was that about?" Felicity asked Oliver after Anatoli was beyond hearing distance. "And don't tell me it's not nothing because it sounds like a something, a big something the way Anatoli was trying to contain himself."

Oliver sighed, "it's not nothing, it is something, definitely something. It's just not a something I want to discuss with you right now. You will know what it is about in a few minutes anyway."

"The ceremony? No wait, the ceremony….it's not?"

"Not what?" Oliver answered her confused.

Felicity punched his chest because she didn't know how to ask him her real question point blank, "you know…for us. Like a wedding thingy?"

"A wedding thingy?" Oliver hid a smile as he realized what she was thinking at the same time he was gauging her reaction. He didn't go to all the trouble of a drawn out meeting with Anatoli, cause an upheaval in the bratva organization and had a serious one on one with his best buddy John and just so that he would have a few blissful months, maybe years with Felicity. No, for the first time in his life he dared to think long term, very long term. Life changing long term. All because he found his one in Felicity and for her, he dared to jump two feet forward without regret into the unknown.

Felicity waved her palm in front of Oliver's face thrice before she finally got his attention back, "Oliver?"

"Not a wedding thingy, for sure. I'm traditional. I'd like to ask for my bride's hand in marriage before we have a wedding thingy. And in case it wasn't clear yet, the only one I would go down on one bended knee for is standing right beside me. So, not a wedding thingy."

And because Oliver all but said he would when the time was right propose to her, Felicity's knees went week at the promise. This time she was the one off focus as Oliver pulled her hand.

"We have to go. I promise, everything will be clearer in a few more minutes." Oliver told her as he twined their finger together.

* * *

Oliver and John embraced tightly for almost a few minutes, emotions very high.

Everyone was silent. The whole room was filled with ranked bratva men, so many of them. It was a wonder Anatoli was able to summon so many men at such a short notice. This was a testament to Anatoli's leadership. The ballroom, yes Anatoli had a private ballroom at his residence. Fully packed but undoubtedly everyone's attention was on the ceremony.

It was at first quite confusing to Felicity, not only because she wasn't bratva. But more importantly the whole ceremony was done is the native Russian language. Thankfully, Lyla had quickly made it to her side.

Felicity later realized Lyla's presence by her side was as much for her comfort, as ceremony.

Oliver was apparently anointing, with the blessing of Anatoli, John Diggle as his replacement as Bratva Captain of Starling City and the northern USA. The second American Bratva Captain on record.

Felicity's eyes watered when it became even clearer what was happening. Oliver was stepping down as Captain, again with Anatoli's blessing and opting for a life without rank. That left him with practically zero responsiilibities and very minimum ties with the Bratva.

This ceremony was as much about the fanfare of retiring a Captain, Oliver to be exact as much as it was about anointing and appointing a new one in the person of John Diggle.

Felicity felt Lyla squeeze her hand and acknowledged the gesture by turning her head toward the other woman and giving her a watery smile. She wondered for a moment if both John and Lyla knew what they were getting into, it was one thing to be part of the bratva but never in the bullseye of things, another to deliberately put yourself in harms way by stepping up in the brotherhood. But then again the little she knew about the Diggles, she found comfort in knowing this step had probably been talked about between them extensively.

Felicity struggled to listen, her thoughts constantly interrupting her but she clearly heard the last part of Anatoli's message. Oliver may be stepping away as Captain, but he was still a part of the brotherhood. He was still Anatoli's heir. He was still being acknowledged not only by Anatoli himself but, by all the other Captains as de-facto second-in-command under Anatoli. Felicity looked around the room and counted the number of heads nodding at the pakhan's message of Oliver's new role in the organization.

Oliver would be left alone, largely. He would be free to pursue other interests, that being QC and did Anatoli allude to a family while he deliberately paused on her? But that it was understood by everyone that the young Queen still held a position of power.

It was for her. Felicity was 100% sure. That was the reason this ceremony was even happening. Oliver most probably spent the day talking Anatoli's ear off about this. After Oliver's promise to her the night before about how she deserved so much more than this, Felicity was hardly surprised.

What amazed her however was Anatoli agreeing to all this and hardly seemed put off. In fact, he had been sending small smiles her way all throughout the ceremony. Like he was pleased this was actually happening.

A couple of hours later Oliver and Felicity with the Diggles and Raisa where on their way back to Starling City Oliver just couldn't wait to re-start the next chapter of his life that he opted to leave that same night instead of the original plan to leave the next day.

"Why?" Felicity finally asked him while settled next to him on the private plane.

Oliver wrapped his left arm around her pulling her closer before he answered her, a catch in his voice because he knew exactly what she alluded to. "Because I wanted to, needed to, had to. For the first time in a very long time, I had another purpose. I was certain, I will always be. You have this way of taking away all my fears, this darkness in me with your light. Yeah, that's right your light. On paper we shouldn't work."

"You mean like unthinkable because you're Oliver Queen, Starling's most eligible bachelor and probably the hottest guy I know. Oh," she knocked herself on her head, "forget that last part."

"Never!" Oliver told her teasingly, "it's not because socially and financially we may be in different classes, don't ever think you are less than all those other women, other people for that matter who judge a person by social class." Oliver told her seriously, frowning as he went on, "you are better than them. Hell, you are better than me. You have something I'd hope to be able to have someday and barring that, I'd like to have you by my side the rest of my days because you represent everything positive in my life. You represent a future that I want. I didn't want to wait another month, another week, another day. Not when I would always be certain when it came to you."

Oliver leaned forward and kissed her temple tenderly.

"I hope that somehow, you feel the same way too." He whispered in her ear, his breath sending a jolt of electricity all throughout her body.

"I…yer…"Felicity started to say but couldn't form a coherent sentence which Oliver interpreted as her still on the fence as far as he was concerned but really she was just overwhelmed by what he said and utterly speechless.

"Don't say anything. I don't expect you to say anything." Oliver placed two fingers to her lips.

Felicity pulled his fingers away form her lips and started to say something but was distracted by the Diggles who were seated together lost in their own world for a moment. "I want what they have. Unconditional love. Totally committed to each other. Is this what John really wanted? What Lyla wanted? To be bratva the rest of their remaining lives?"

Oliver paused and looked at his friend John who had his wife wrapped around his huge arms before he answered, "yes. He actually volunteered. I was surprised he did but Anatoli wasn't. And I know for a fact that John doesn't do any, decide on anything without first consulting Lyla. So yes, she's committed to the bratva life too."

Felicity used her fingers to rub Oliver's forearm before she continued, "so what's going to happen once we reach Starling?"

Oliver pulled away from her, just enough so that he could look her in the eye. "It's really up to you. I've said everything I wanted, done what I needed to do on my end. The next step is up to you." He told her slowly and Felicity could tell he was a little nervous and unsure.

Felicity swallowed. She watched the Diggles again for a full minute contemplating making Oliver sweat it out before she leaned her head on his shoulder saying, "am I moving in officially? To the Queen Mansion I mean?"

Some of Oliver's anxiousness dissipated with her teasing and he responded with a tease of his own, "aren't you already?

"Oh." Felicity realized that technically she was.

Oliver didn't want this half-assed conversation. He was a man who faced obstacles head on, this was probably the most important conversation to date and he was determined to thresh this out while they where in the air because when they landed, he planned to spend his every moment with the woman beside him.

He pushed away from her and took the seat across, so now they where facing one another.

"I know we haven't really known each other that long but then again, these last few weeks have been some of the most intense for both of us and I think what we have both been through, both of us together, what we know of one another, it's like we've been together for several lifetimes. And like I said to you, you are it for me. My anchor, my purpose, my everything, my always. However else I say it, it will always mean just one thing. You are not just part of my future, you are my future."

He reached out to hold her hands before he continued, "I appreciate that you may not feel as committed to this, what we are, as I am. But that's fine with me. I will always love you more than you would love me. Always."

"Oh Oliver," Felicity sighed before she pulled him so that they were once again seated together her hand on his cheek and her eyes filled with something that took Oliver's breath away.

"I would refute that last statement of yours only because I know I love you more. I do." She declared simply like it was beyond argue, that it was a fact. "I mean, I technically followed you to the ends of the earth. Been shot at countless times. Embraced this other life of yours that just a few are aware of. I could go on and on." She leaned in and whispered on his ear, "but I would rather show you. Maybe not right now because John and Lyla are still our dearest friends and we will still be seeing them regularly hence I don't want them thinking I can't contain myself around you."

Oliver was smiling like there was no tomorrow at her ramble, oh he wanted to carry her to the plane's private bedroom and worship her body, to hell with John and Lyla. They knew what he felt for Felicity anyway but he reluctantly understood that Felicity was still getting used to his very public show of affection, not that he thought the Diggles or Raisa were in fact public. But as much as it pained him, yes it pained him, he contrained himself. He would have her all to himself soon enough anyway. She did say she loved him back after all.

Oliver leaned in and captured her lips in a sweet and long kiss, unmindful of whomever was watching.

* * *

Somehow the press had gotten wind that Oliver Queen was back in Starling City, apparently from a romantic getaway if he were to quote the news outlets since they weren't really privy to where he had come from.

The small airfield was swarming with reports as they all alighted. Flashes burst out on the tarmac, everyone trying to gat a money shot of the 'lovebirds' and because Oliver wanted the world to know how he felt for the woman he had his arm around her and also because he just couldn't wait any longer, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her senseless right there in the tarmac and the crowd went into a frenzy.

The controlled, cold-blooded, private, paparazzi shy Oliver Queen, who had returned to Starling City a couple of years ago from Russia was very publicly kissing a woman, because no one doubted that Oliver did not notice the swarm of reporters.

That for the first time in a very long time, he was giving them something that was newsworthy.

Oliver Queen was with a woman, very publicly possessive, if his stance was to be described.

It would be a few minutes after when the press realized that this was the same woman he was seen with, occasionally during the last few weeks. They would later make the connection and identify her as Felicity Meghan Smoak, Queen Consolidated employee who very recently made quite a splash inside QC with what could only be described by insiders as strategic corporate innovations. Her credentials were suddenly a very hot topic. Her being MIT and a top graduate quickly put to a stop any speculation about her place in Oliver's life.

Genius, knock-out, sweetheart were just some of the adjectives used to describe her. How the press had put together quite a dossier on her was a testament to how hungry they were for this game changer story.

And it was a game changer because like every one else in Starling City who had followed the news. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that this was serious business. A serious romance. A fairy tale that would lead to the altar one day, quite soon if all the fangirls and fanboys of the romance was to be believed.

They where seen everywhere together. Oliver holding her hand, wrapping an arm around her, kissing her, just generally adorably looking at her like she hung the moon.

Oliver Queen was definitely off the market. That was a fact. But no one really begrudge him his happiness.

After everything that had happened in his life, after the tragedy of the loss of the Queen family that was felt by every citizen of Starling largely because the Queens were well-loved despite the youthful antics of a young Oliver. They all agreed that he needed and deserved this happiness.

The whole City had rallied around this romance, literally.

While this was all happening in the surface, underneath that layer, things were moving quite fast as John Diggle slid in seamlessly and Oliver embraced his new role in the bratva which was practically no role at all.

The Diggles had set up shop in the opposite end of town, near the border to Coast City. It was necessary since the bratva was regrouping and they needed a large, out of the way space that allowed them the cloud of invisibility.

Felicity and Lyla started the routine of weekly lunches. It had been six full months since they had flown back to the City. John had been heavily occupied but surprisingly the Diggles had been able to maintain a life balance that only they could, given what they did.

Oliver Queen was preparing to make a press conference at the steps of QC with Felicity just a few feet away from him. This bold direction of QC, it was principally because of her, his Felicity.

Her aptitude in technology and her dedication and commitment toward a shared vision with Oliver had ensured that QC had grown leaps and bounds in a very short time.

With this innovation, the QC legacy would forever be stamped in history. It's place amongst America's greatest a given.

Oliver was finally at that place.

Everyone knew the press conference was about QC and it's bold direction.

But only a few, John, Lyla, Raisa and Anatoli, Oliver counted the people with his fingers knew he was about to make another announcement. Not an announcement, he corrected.

It was really more of a life-changing event. His and Felicity's.

He was going to finally go down on one knee and propose to the love of his life.

* * *

 ** _Is it cruel to stop here?_**

 ** _One last chapter to go and you know where this is heading. No cliffy this time just pure unadulterated fangirl moments._**

 ** _Much as I wanted to go on with this story, I think ten chapters is what she wrote._**

 ** _Besides, I'm due for a long vacation. Back to my second home, across another continent._**

 ** _Last chapter will be posted during the last week of Arrow._**

 ** _Please make your comments and notes. I love those._**


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Notes: This is it, the last chapter of this Bratva story. I hope I wrote a fitting ending to this one as deserved.**

 **For those who patiently waited for this last chapter a big thank you. I've been on vacation for a month visiting family in Melbourne as I always do twice a year. I just needed to gourde myself in Cadbury and TImTams before I finished editing this chapter ready for posting.**

 **I hope you all watch out for a new one I have already begun writing while on vacation, the plot is at the bottom of this story. I will post chapter 1 before the end of the month hoping you will fall in love with the story and I do my part in making this hiatus more bearable for all of us. To make sure you get the story once I post it, you can follow my via my twitter account.**

 **If you have the time, please drop me a line at any of the following:**

 **Fanfiction – lollipopdiaries**

 **Archive of Our Own – lollipopdiaries**

 **Tumblr – everythinglollipop**

 **Twitter – lollipopsays (lollipopdiairies)**

 **Disclaimer: As usual, this story is an original but everything else is not and does not belong to me.**

* * *

 **FIRE AND ICE**

 **Chapter 10 – Family Man**

Pandemonium had broken out as soon as he had gone down on one knee but he had only eyes for one, his Felicity.

The surprise in her face followed by tears that unabashedly ran down her cheeks as he continued to stare at him speechless gave him a few scary moments of doubt but then she broke out that smile that had dazzled him from the beginning then everything righted itself in his word once again.

She nodded once, slowly. Then followed that up with a speedier version as her head bobbed several times before she finally uttered the single word that had him plastering that smile on his face, the same one that the cameras had captured and would be featured on various news reels, magazines and social networks.

"Yes."

He had spent about twenty minutes discussing the future of Queen Consolidated before he cut-off himself mid-speech and faced her. The crowd had been confused at first, but they had quickly caught on.

Now he was pulling her toward a waiting limousine as paparazzi continued to document there progress toward the black car hand in hand.

He was smiling as if it would break his face. Why shouldn't he, the love of his life, the reason he had finally left the darkness behind was right beside him holding up her hand and gazing at her engagement ring like she couldn't quite fathom that this was indeed true.

"This must me worth a fortune," Felicity said still staring at her ring.

"It was my mothers."

"Oh." Felicity dropped her hand on her lap solemnly.

In the next second, Oliver reached out and lifted her hand, the same one that held the Queen heirloom.

"It was always intended to be passed down to the woman I would eventually take as my wife. Before I met you, this ring," Oliver ran a finger over the stone, "would never be worn, I couldn't see myself down that path after what happened. But then you happened. And this will never come off, ever. It will only leave your finger the day it would be passed down to our son's bride to be. One Queen to the next one."

"Oh Oliver," Felicity leaned in and kissed his cheek. "We haven't really discussed babies."

"Don't you want kids?"

"Of course I do. They'd be yours…and mine. And they'd be carrying on the Queen legacy. But…."

"Not yet. I know. I want you all to myself at least for a year. I'm sure I still have much to discover about my future wife. I'd like us to travel the world too, just you and me. Now that I have the time, I'd like to do that with you."

Four months later Felicity was walking down the aisle toward her groom. It was a beautiful and solemn wedding at the gardens of the Queen Mansion. Everyone who was anyone in Starling City was in attendance.

Part of the ceremony was even captured live on tv. Starling felt like this was one of there own who truly deserved this slice of happiness. Felicity was treated like she was born and raised in the City.

Little girls wanted to be like her, the geeky, nerdy but pretty princess who became a Queen, literally. Little girls dressed like her and dreamt that one day, a prince who looked exactly like Oliver Queen would sweep them off their feet.

As promised, Oliver took Felicity around the world, a whole three months of honeymoon.

It could have been longer but they had a business to run, or so Felicity Queen told her husband.

Oliver had reluctantly steered them back toward Starling City and as if the god's were playing some kind of sick joke on Oliver, as he droved the long spiral private road to the Mansion he was greeted by a parade of Russian mob soldiers, the Bratva.

It was the first sign that something wasn't right, a feeling of dread settled over Oliver as he slowly parked the car and because Felicity was already deeply in sync with his mood changes, she gently touching his arm. That was all he needed to prepare him for the turn of events that was about to change their lives again.

John slowly approached his friend who was cautiously disembarking from the sports car.

"John." Oliver greeted his friend first before he embraced the big man warmly.

On the other side, Lyla and Felicity embraced just as warmly.

"I have not so good news Oliver, this is better said inside." That was all he said and his tone told Oliver just how grave the news could be. And it was definitely all about the bratva because their was almost an army guarding the perimeters of the Queen Mansion how Starling City police hadn't noticed this show of force was beyond Oliver's comprehension.

* * *

"Two days?" Oliver asked his friend, still rubbing his hand on his face.

"Yes. I'm sorry for not telling you sooner. Felicity mentioned to Lyla that you where on your way back anyway, I wanted to give you one more day before all this was upon you once again. I asked no one to contact you before I told you the news."

Oliver slowly nodded, understanding what his friend was saying.

"The funeral is tomorrow." John said again.

Again Oliver slowly nodded squeezing Felicity's hand that had been laced with his the whole time.

"Then we leave for Russia immediately. Is the army of soldiers really necessary?" Oliver lifted an eyebrow as he asked his friend.

John just shrugged, "I just brought a few with me when I arrived here two days ago. The others arrived in groups a couple of hours after I did. Sent by other Captains across the country as a sign of their loyalty and to protect you, the new pakhan as was destined."

At the mention of his new title Oliver sighed deeply turning to his wife while he spoke to John, "could you give us a few minutes John?"

John nodded although Oliver never looked his way, "I'll have the plane prepared. I'll see you in a couple of hours. I am truly sorry for your loss Oliver."

Oliver only nodded to acknowledge he heard his friend but he was still looking at Felicity until the door closed with finality.

"I'm sorry." Oliver said, sadness obvious in his tone.

Felicity placed an arm around Oliver's back pulling him closer to her with his head now firmly on her chest since she knew her husband was hurting. The man he considered his second father, a firm role model had just passed away.

Anatoly suffered a heart-attacked, a fatal one. He had no history of any ailments and had always been a very fit man for his age. The death should have been shrouded in suspicion but according to John, they had been assured there was no foul play involved.

"I'm the one who is sorry. I didn't know him that well but I knew he loved you his own way. Giving you these few months with me was a show of how unconditional his love was for you."

Oliver heaved even harder. He truly was blessed to have Felicity in his life as his wife. Anatoly's death would have taken him in a totally different path of more darkness sealing his persona as a cold-blooded killing machine forever had it not been for her. Now Oliver could see the light despite the darkness that now threatened him once again.

"We will get through this, I'm never leaving, never. You and me, we are in this together. Even if it's the Bratva life you tried so hard to get us away from. I will always be by your side. Always."

Oliver leaned infinitesimally into his wife seeking her warmth even more as tears threatened to escape.

"Come on, we have to get ready," Felicity gently encouraged.

"No. I want to stay here. Stay this way." Oliver pouted. He never really pouted or acted the way he was acting like now, but that was what Felicity brought into his life. He was afraid that the darkness was too much. That not only would he be consumed backed and deeper, what with Anatoly's responsibilities but it would suck the light out of Felicity. The one he wanted to protect the most.

She giggled. Dared to giggle at his small tantrum. Right then Oliver knew. They would be fine. He would be fine as long as she was right by his side.

As he pulled away from Felicity and pulled her up so they could get ready, something inside him lit. He could do this. Something that Anatoly was never able to.

He could have a family. He could bring children into this life he was after all destined to have, all because she was here. She was going to be the mother of his children. He could do it all. Together, they could do it all.

And he laughed, surprising Felicity who looked at him funny.

He would be the last to believe it years ago. How his life had turned out. But he wouldn't change one single bit of it. Not a single bit of it.

A few hours later, they landed in Russia and he still had that fire lit inside of him, that light that his wife had shared with him.

A day later, they were standing hand in hand. Surrounded by men in black. The Bratva.

While the Captains gave their show of support by lining up and one by one reaching out a hand to Oliver acknowledging him as the new pakhan in a simple ceremony, just as Oliver had wanted Felicity had stood by his side in quiet support.

An hour later, Oliver had swelled with pride as he spotted Felicity from a distance holding her own as the toughest of Captains surrounded her, all surprisingly smirking some even openly smiling at something his wife was saying.

Why had he even had doubts when it came to his Felicity. She and only she had cracked his tough exterior. And he was even worst off than the any of the Captains that flocked toward her.

Now he was simmering with something else, jealousy. But it was quickly doused, as his wife looked his way as if she knew he was troubled. It took just one bright smile directed at him and a double thumb up in a quirky way that was 100% his Felicity and the green giant disappeared.

* * *

Somehow they had made it work, Oliver being pakhan and CEO of Queen Consolidated at the same time.

Queen Consolidated had expanded heavily in Europe making juggling both responsibilities easier. Choosing Russia as its European springboard of operations. To some board members the choice Russia seemed odd but most didn't question it. They knew Russia held a special place in the life of their CEO. One, it was the place he had self-refuge when tragedy had struck his family. Second, it was what most already thought of as the place where he and his future wife had fallen madly and deeply in love hence, the preference for Russia.

For the next twenty-five years, Oliver and Felicity who had indeed never left his side traveled with him wherever business took him had lived that life.

They had three children that completed their lives.

The oldest son now twenty-three years old had recently taken an active role in QC. Three years from now he would fully take full control of the company. Robert Jonas Queen had taken a spitting resemblance to his father but had taken after his mother graduating two years earlier at the top of his class at MIT.

Nineteen year old Meghan Olivia Queen was her parents pride and joy. She was a carbon copy of her mother down to the trademark ponytail and glasses. She was currently traveling the world but would later join QC opening more opportunities in business worldwide.

It was young Thomas Oliver who had his parents worried. At fifteen it looked like he would follow in his fathers footstep with the Bratva.

As part of the condition of Oliver stepping into his role as pakhan, he had the bratva council blessing that none of his children would be obligated to serve or be part of the brotherhood in any capacity. Young Tommy had still to be swayed by his parents however.

Now fifty-four and fifty respectively, Oliver and Felicity were preparing for life after "retirement", another condition Oliver had worked out with the brotherhood council. That he "retire" at fifty five to enjoy the rest of his years with his wife and children back in Starling City hopefully dotting on grandkids in the very near future.

* * *

 ** _The end._**

 ** _I hoped I wrapped this story up nicely and with the ending it truly deserved._**

 _ **Watch out for my new Olicity fic which will be ready for posting end June entitled "Undercover" with basic plot as follows: Obviously very AU. Oliver and Felicity go under cover as husband and wife outside of Starling City. Something goes wrong with the "mission" and they are both rushed to the hospital. Felicity who was "legally" Mrs. Queen having hacked the records days earlier to make their sting legit was identified as such by the hospital which brought a frenzy to their lives as this tidbit reached the paparazzi.**_

 ** _Follow me on twitter so when this new fic breaks and I post the link you can immediately dive into the story._**

 _ **In the meantime a big thank you to all of you for appreciating this effort.**_


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